LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

PRESENTED  BY 

DONALD  BEEKS 


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NUMERICAL  FORMULA  0   15 


ERSONAL 


IDENTIFICATION 


METHODS  FOR  THE  IDENTIFICATION 
OF    INDIVIDUALS,    LIVING    OR    DEAD 


HARRIS    HAWTHORNE   WILDER,   PH.D. 

l/ 
Professor     of     Zoology     in     Smith      College 


BERT    WENTWORTH 

Former  Police  Commissioner  of  Dover ,  N .  H . 


BOSTON 

RICHARD  G.  BADGER 

THE   GORHAM  PRESS 


COPYRIGHT,  1918,  BY  RICHARD  G.  BADGER 


AH  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 

SIR   EDWARD  RICHARD  HENRY 

OF  SCOTLAND  YARD,  WHOSE  PRACTICAL  SUC- 
CESS IN  THE    INTRODUCTION  OF  THE  SYS- 
TEM OF  FINGER-PRINT  IDENTIFICATION, 
AS  THE  FIRST  ABSOLUTELY  POSITIVE 
METHOD    OF    IDENTIFYING    THE 
INDIVIDUAL,   DESERVES 
THE       GRATITUDE 
•    OF      MANKIND    • 


SIR  EDWARD  RICHARD  HENRY,   C.  S.  I. 
The  Commissioner,  New  Scotland  Yard,  London,  S.  W.,  England 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  is  primarily  intended  to  place  before  the  general  public 
a  very  live  problem,  and  consider  all  the  ways  by  which,  up  to  the 
present  time,  a  solution  has  been  sought. 

The  problem  is  that  of  the  Personal  Identification  of  human  indi- 
viduals; the  means  by  which  a  person,  or  a  dead  body,  may  be  definitely 
recognized,  even  in  cases  where  the  person  purposely  attempts  to  mislead, 
or  where  a  dead  body  is  mutilated  beyond  ordinary  means  of  recognition. 
It  is  plain  that  such  an  identification  must  rest  upon  certain  individual 
bodily  characters;  and  as  such  matters  are  scientifically  dealt  with  by 
the  physical  anthropologists,  it  is  to  the  specialists  in  this  branch  of 
science  that  we  naturally  turn  for  aid. 

Up  to  the  present  the  main  use  of  such  scientific  methods  of  bodily 
identification  has  been  confined  to  the  identification  of  the  criminal  classes, 
whose  practices  render  them  notably  elusive  as  to  personality;  yet  there 
are  countless  other  cases  where  the  identification  of  individuals  is  equally 
necessary,  and  where  the  ordinary  methods  of  recognition  are  insufficient. 
The  liability  to  accidents  involving  the  mutilation  of  the  face,  the  fre- 
quency with  which  a  man's  mind  may  become  temporarily  or  permanently 
beclouded,  the  temptation  to  fraud  often  felt  by  men  who  do  not  belong 
distinctly  to  the  criminal  class,  attempts  of  impostors  to  claim  estates; 
these  and  numerous  other  possibilities  render  some  sure  method  of  bodily 
identification  one  of  the  great  necessities  of  civilization.  Such  a  system 
would  be  of  great  value  to  families,  insurance  companies,  banks,  industrial 
institutions,  and  all  great  business  enterprises  involving  responsibility  for 
employees.  The  need  is  present  in  schools  and  hospitals,  especially 
maternity  hospitals,  and  those  for  the  insane,  while,  in  time  of  war,  as  at 
the  present  moment,  comes  the  pressing  need  of  adequately  identifying  all 
enlisted  men,  however  numerous  they  may  be.  The  need  of  individual 
identification  is  imperative,  too,  in  the  case  of  passports,  railroad  passes 
and  all  kinds  of  legal  papers  involving  and  bestowing  special  privileges 
which  are  non-transferable. 

This  problem  of  individual  identification  has  thus  passed  already  far 
beyond  the  walls  of  police  stations  and  penitentiaries,  and  the  demand  is 
seen,  more  and  more  clearly,  for  some  method  of  universal  identification 
embracing  all  the  citizens  of  the  Nation.  The  science  of  individual 
identification  through  the  various  bodily  peculiarities  has  now  quite  out- 
grown the  prison  walls,  in  which  it  was  nurtured,  and  is  ready  to  fill  the 
place  which  the  growing  needs  have  made  for  it. 

5 


6  Preface 

In  this  is  seen  the  mission  of  the  present  book.  It  attempts  to  lay 
before  the  reader  all  known  methods  of  personal  identification,  including, 
of  course,  the  system  of  measurements  inaugurated  by  M.  Bertillon,  and  the 
now  famous  system  of  finger  prints  devised  by  Sir  Francis  Galton  and  put 
into  actual  use  by  Sir  E.  R.  Henry.  It  also  introduces  two  new  methods, 
those  based  upon  the  friction-skin  configuration  of  the  palm  of  the  hand  and 
the  sole  of  the  foot,  which,  although  their  possibilities  have  been  previously 
exploited  in  technical  journals,  appear  here  for  the  first  time  in  practical 
form  for  general  use. 

In  the  case  of  the  first-mentioned  systems,  bodily  measurements  and 
finger  prints,  the  book  makes  no  claim  to  furnish  a  complete  working 
manual,  but  rather  refers  the  reader  to  the  original  works  of  Bertillon, 
Galton,  Henry,  and  the  more  recent  American  writers,  Seymour,  Kuhne, 
and  Evans.  In  the  part  dealing  with  the  finger-print  system  the  book 
looks  to  the  future  rather  than  to  the  present,  and  contemplates  certain 
practical  reforms  in  the  present  system.  It  thus  advocates  an  ideal 
system  of  finger-print  formulation,  while  it  explains  in  detail  the  system 
as  now  in  use.  By  so  doing  this  portion  of  the  book  (Part  II,  Chapter  V) 
may  serve  to  instruct  a  novice  in  the  present  system,  while  presenting  at 
the  same  time  a  broad  view  of  the  subject  upon  which  the  system  is  based, 
and  suggesting  the  endless  possibilities  for  future  improvement. 

The  two  new  systems  of  identification,  (1)  by  the  palms,  and  (2)  by 
the  soles,  being  presented  here  for  the  first  time,  are  made  sufficient  for 
immediate  application,  and  their  treatment  is  adapted  for  self-instruction. 

It  is  here  our  pleasant  duty  to  record  and  acknowledge  the  encourage- 
ment and  material  assistance  which  the  authors  have  received  from  col- 
leagues and  friends  during  the  progress  of  this  work.  From  Scotland 
Yard,  London,  and  more  especially  from  the  Chief,  Sir  E.  R.  Henry,  have 
been  sent  a  number  of  illustrations  and  accompanying  data,  used  mostly 
in  Part  II,  Chapter  VII;  much  of  the  material  and  illustrations  for  Part  II, 
Chapter  VIII,  has  in  the  same  way  been  furnished  by  the  Director  of  the 
Police  Laboratory  of  Lyons,  France,  M.  Edmond  Locard. 

To  the  Police  Department  of  New  York  City,  and  especially  to  Com- 
missioner Guy  H.  Scull,  we  are  indebted  for  the  details  concerning  the 
La  Rosa  case;  also  to  the  two  Pacinis,  father  and  son,  for  the  details  of  the 
restoration  made  by  the  former.  One  of  our  most  inspiring  and  zealous 
friends,  who  has  constantly  aided  us  in  many  ways,  is  the  finger-print 
expert  of  the  City  Magistrates  Court,  Brooklyn,  Mr.  G.  Tyler  Mairs. 
Many  of  his  suggestions  are  embodied  in  the  text,  or  appear  as  footnotes 
over  his  initials,  and  his  criticisms  throughout  have  been  of  the  greatest 
assistance  to  us.  Mr.  Albert  S.  Osborn,  also,  the  handwriting  expert, 
has  shown  us  much  personal  kindness,  and  has  been  now  for  many  years 
a  stimulating  correspondent;  William  M.  Evans  of  the  Bureau  of  Criminal 


Preface  7 

Identification,  Chicago,  Illinois,  furnished  the  information  and  illustra- 
tions of  the  "Jennings"  case,  and  M.  W.  McClaughry,  special  agent  of  the 
Department  of  Justice  at  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  furnished  the  illustrations 
and  details  of  the  case  of  William  and  Will  West. 

Many  personal  friends  of  the  authors  have  taken  a  serious  interest 
in  the  undertaking  of  this  work,  and  have  aided  us  greatly  by  their  en- 
couragement and  interest.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  Mr.  R.  C. 
Hill,  now  in  charge  of  the  State  Bureau  of  Criminal  Identification  at 
Boston;  the  late  Henry  Richardson,  formerly  in  charge  of  the  same 
Bureau;  Mr.  G.  Gustafson,  at  Police  Headquarters,  Pemberton  Square, 
in  the  same  city;  City  Marshal  O.  B.  Fernandez,  and  the  late  City  Marshal 
W.  L.  Avery,  both  of  Old  Town,  Maine;  Mr.  Lee  Seymour  of  Los  Angeles, 
California;  Mr.  John  Frank  Platts  and  Mr.  Byron  J.  Page  of  Dover, 
New  Hampshire;  and  the  leading  promoter  of  the  use  of  finger  prints  for 
bank  identification,  Ray  E.  Bauder  of  Taylorville,  Illinois,  has  aided  us 
by  allowing  the  use  of  certain  illustrations  of  his  system. 

It  is  finally  to  be  remembered  that,  in  advocating  universal  identifica- 
tion records,  in  advising  the  employment  of  the  palms  and  soles  in  addition 
to  the  finger  prints,  and  in  presenting  certain  modifications  of  the  systems 
now  in  use,  the  authors  look  toward  the  future  rather  than  to  the  present 
only.  The  book  is  thus  not  primarily  designed  to  give  instruction  to  those 
wishing  simply  to  learn  the  methods  at  present  employed  in  our  principal 
police  departments,  although  these  methods  are  quite  fully  dealt  with, 
but  rather  to  show  the  thinking  public  what  the  possibilities  are  of  the 
various  methods  of  identification,  and  especially  those  met  with  in  the 
employment  of  the  permanent,  unvarying,  and  absolutely  individual 
friction  ridges,  which  cover  the  entire  lower,  or  ventral,  surface  of  the 
hands  and  feet. 

HARRIS  HAWTHORNE  WILDER 
BERT  WENTWORTH 
April  15,  1918 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 
METHODS  WHICH  FURNISH  PARTIAL  IDENTIFICATION 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I.  The  Problem 17 

CHAPTER  II.  Sight  Recognition  and  Its  Uncertainties  .  .  27 
CHAPTER  III.  Identification  by  Moles,  Birthmarks,  Scars, 

Tattooing,  and  other  Surface  Markings .  .  41 
CHAPTER  IV.  Identification  by  Habits,  Gait,  Handwriting, 

Preferences,  Accomplishments,  Voice,  etc.  .  52 
CHAPTER  V.  Identification  by  Bodily  Measurements,  and 

by  the  Features  of  the  Head  and  Face;   the 

Bertillon  System       ...         ...         59 

CHAPTER  VI.  Identification  of  Fragmentary,  Decomposed,  or 

Dried  Remains;    Identification   of   Bones  and 

Teeth 73 

CHAPTER  VII.  Identification  of  the  Skull;  Restoration  of  the 

Face  upon  the  Bones 96 


PART  II 
METHODS  WHICH  FURNISH  ABSOLUTE  IDENTIFICATION 

CHAPTER  I.  Friction  Skin  and  Friction  Ridges;  Technique  of 

Making  Prints  of  the  Ridges  .  .  .  .113 
CHAPTER  II.  Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges; 

Details  of  their  Course  and  Arrangement  .  118 
CHAPTER  III.  The  Palm  of  the  Hand;  Method  of  Describing 

and  Classifying 136 

CHAPTER  IV.  The  Sole  of  the  Foot;  Method  of  Describing  and 

Classifying 159 

CHAPTER  V.  Finger  Prints;  Description  and  Classification  .  185 

9 


10  Contents 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VI.  Finger  Prints;  the  Code  .  .  .  ,  .  234 
CHAPTER  VII.  Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development: 

their  Use  in  Fixing  the  Agency  of  a   Given 

Individual         .         .         .         ...         .260 

CHAPTER  VIII.  Poroscopy;  the  Use  of  the  Sweat  Pores  in 

Identification    .         .         .         .         .         .         .       292 

CHAPTER  IX.  The  Impossibility  of  Finding  Two  Identical 

Finger  Prints    .         .         .         .         .         .         .      312 

CHAPTER  X.  History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification  by 

Friction  Ridges  .  .  •  .  .  .  .  332 
CHAPTER  XI.  Present  Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification; 

Possibilities  for  the  Future  352 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FIGURE  PAGE 

Numerical  Formula  015 FRONTISPIECE 

Sir  Edward  Richard  Henry 4 

1.  Haida  Indians,  with  tattooing  for  identification 22 

2.  Detail  of  Haida  Indian  tattooing 23 

3.  Woman  from  the  Congo,  showing  scarification 24 

4.  Photographs  and  thumb-prints  of  three  men  who  look  alike    .    .     30 

5.  Bertillon  photographs  of  Will  West;   Leavenworth  No.  3426  .    .     31 

6.  Bertillon  photograph  of  William  West;    Leavenworth  No.  2626     31 

7.  Left  Index  patterns  of  the  two  West  negroes      32 

8.  Two  little  twin  girls  who  are  duplicates 34 

9.  A  set  of  triplets  from  Athol,  Mass 35 

10.  Two  unlike  photographs  of  the  same  man,  with  finger-print    .    .      37 

11.  Diagram  of  an  arm,  with  various  surface  markings 44 

12.  Identification  Card,  showing  a  typical  Bertillon  photograph   .    .     64 

13.  Usual  hair  direction  on  the  front  of  the  body 76 

14.  Usual  hair  direction  on  the  back 77 

15.  Face  and  head  of  a  Cliff-dweller  mummy 80 

16.  Same  as  Fig.  15,  but  restored  by  the  action  of  caustic  potash     .      80 

17.  Sexual  differences  in  the  pelvic  bones 84 

18.  Humerus  of  child,  showing  composition 86 

19.  Jaw,  in  middle  life  and  in  age 88 

20.  Neck-shaft  angle  of  femur,  in  young,  adult  and  in  old  age  ...     89 

21.  Bust  of  Johann  Sebastian  Bach,  built  upon  his  skull 97 

22.  Head  of  criminal,  just  hanged 99 

23.  Skull  of  same 99 

24.  Face  built  upon  skull  (Fig.  23)  by  a  sculptor      99 

25.  Same  as  Fig.  24,  but  done  by  another  and  better  sculptor   ...     99 

26.  Side  of  face  of  criminal  shown  in  Fig.  22 100 

27.  Side  view  of  skull  shown  in  Fig.  23       100 

28.  Side  view  of  the  restored  face  shown  in  Fig.  24      100 

29.  Side  view  of  the  restored  face  of  Fig.  25 100 

30.  Diagram  showing  the  points  used  in  restoring  a  face;   front  view  103 

31.  Diagram  similar  to  Fig.  30,  but  showing  a  side  view 104 

32.  A  series  of  faces  of  New  England  Indians,  built  upon  the  skulls     106 

33.  A  series  of  faces  of  Negroes  and  Whites,  built  upon  the  skulls  .    .    106 

34.  Bust  of  a  Cliff-dweller,  built  upon  the  bones 108 

35.  Diagram  showing  the  pads  on  the  foot  of  a  walking  mammal,  a 

quadruped 120 

36.  Diagram  of  the  palm  of  an  East  Indian  monkey 122 

37.  Diagram  of  the  palm  of  a  young  white  woman 123 

38.  The  Galton  details,  fork,  end,  island,  and  enclosure 125 

39.  Small  squares  of  friction  skin  from  two  palms 126 

40.  Same  as  Fig.  39,  but  enlarged  two  and  a  half  times 127 

11 


12  List  of  Illustrations 


FIGURE  PAGE 

41.  Detail  of  Fig.  40,  still  more  enlarged    ......;...    128-129 

42.  Six  prints  of  thumb  of  little  girl,  taken  at  about  two-year  intervals  131 

43.  Print  of  a  palm,  with  Main  Lines  and  patterns  outlined  ....    138 

44.  Print  of  a  different  palm  from  that  shown  in  Fig.  43,  and  treated 

in  the  same  way 139 

45.  Diagram  of  palm;  a  Key  to  the  Main  Line  Formula? 140 

46.  Palm  print,  with  the  formula;   7.9.5.5.C 142 

47.  Palm  print  with  the  formula:  8.6.5.5.P 144 

48.  Palm  print  with  the  formula:   10. 0.6. 4. Ch 145 

49.  Palm  print  with  the  formula:   10d.9.6.5.C 146 

50.  Palm  print  with  the  formula :   11. 9. 7. 5. C      ,-.. .    147 

51.  Palm  tracing;  formula:   7.5.5.5.P      148 

52.  Palm  tracing;   formula:  8.6.5.3.P . .    .    148 

53.  Palm  tracing;  formula:  9. 0.5. 5. C 148 

54.  Palm  tracing;  formula:  9.7.5.2.C      148 

55.  Palm  tracing;  formula:   11.7.7.1.C 148 

56.  Palm  tracing;  formula:   11.8.7.3.Ch 148 

57.  Key  diagram  for  location  of  the  patterns 152 

58.  Tracing  from  a  left  sole  print,  showing  all  the  digital  deltas    .    .161 

59.  Tracing  from  a  second  left  sole  print,  also  with  the  digital  deltas, 

but  otherwise  unlike  Fig.  58 162 

60.  Tracing  from  a  right  sole  print,  with  digital  areas  somewhat  fused  163 

61.  Diagram  of  a  typical  Ball  pattern;  whorl  type 164 

62.  The  three  types  of  loops  found  in  Ball  patterns 165 

63.  Tracing  of  left  sole,  showing  all  the  digital  deltas 167 

64.  Tracing  of  left  sole,  with  first  digital  delta  wanting,  and  the  ball 

pattern  a  twin  loop 168 

65.  Tracing  of  a  ball  pattern,  showing  a  twin  loop 168 

66.  Tracing  of  a  ball  pattern,  showing  a  lateral  pocket  loop       .    .    .    169 

67.  Tracing  of  a  ball  pattern,  showing  a  central  pocket 169 

68.  Tracing  of  left  sole,  without  a  lower  delta 172 

69.  Tracing  of  left  sole,  with  widely  open  lower  delta  and  a  B  pattern 

on  the  ball 173 

70.  Tracing  of  left  sole,  with  much  restricted  lower  delta,  and  an  A 

pattern  on  the  ball 173 

71.  Tracing  of  left  sole,  with  lower  delta  embracing  the  second  plantar 

pattern;  ball  pattern  of  the  A  type 174 

72.  Tracing  of  left  sole,  with  lower  delta  embracing  the  first  and 

second  plantar  patterns;  ball  pattern  of  the  W  type    ....    174 

73.  Tracing  of  the  entire  sole  print  of  a  boy,  showing  hypothenar  and 

calcar  patterns 183 

74.  The  bones  of  the  left  middle  finger      186 

75.  Print  of  an  entire  left  middle  finger 187 

76.  Diagrams  of  the  four  main  types  of  finger  patterns 188 

77.  Complete  finger-print  record  of  a  little  girl 192 

78.  Details  of  several  different  deltas,  from  loops 193 

79.  Ulnar  loop;   right  middle  finger  of  J.  C 194 

80.  Same  as  Fig.  79,  but  with  the  pattern  area  removed 194 

81.  Details  of  several  cores,  from  whorls 196 

82.  Radial  loop;  a  disputed  pattern 199 


List  of  Illustrations 


FIGURE  PAGE 

82f .  Diagram  of  ridge  tracing;   from  whorls 206 

83.  An  Accidental,  with  triple  loop      211 

84.  Identification  card,  measuring  6x6  inches      231 

85.  White  prints  on  a  black  ground 263 

86.  Chance  impression  on  a  window  pane 269 

87.  Print  of  left  index  finger  of  J.  H.  Wheeldon 270 

88.  Sketch  of  ridge  characteristics  of  Fig.  87 271 

89.  Chance  impression  on  glass 272 

90.  Print  of  left  index  finger  of  George  Brown 273 

91.  Chance  impression  on  a  piece  of  glass  from  a  broken  window      .    274 

92.  Print  of  right  index  finger  of  William  Simpson 275 

93.  Two  overlapping  impressions  found  on  a  box 276 

94.  Print  of  the  right  thumb  of  George  Lane 277 

95.  Finger  mark  on  a  candle 278 

96.  Print  of  the  right  index  finger  of  Frederick  Smith 278 

97-99.     Spiked  gate,  and  two  prints  of  the  right  little  finger  of  Mitchell, 

the  burglar 279 

100.  Chance  impression  on  tray  of  cash  box 280 

101.  Print  of  the  right  thumb  of  Alfred  Stratton,  who,  with  his 

brother,  was  hanged  for  the  Deptford  murder 280 

102.  Impressions  of  dirty  fingers  on  white  woodwork 281 

103a.  Section  of  razor  with  which  Henry  W.  WTard  was  killed,  show- 
ing faint  ridge  marks 281 

103b.  Ridge  marks  on  razor,  enlarged  4  diameters 281 

104.  Print  of  left  ring  finger  of  Mayor,  the  assassin 282 

105.  Chance  impression,  found  on  the  neck  of  a  broken  glass  bottle     283 

106.  Plain  impressions  of  the  four  fingers  of  the  left  hand  of  Thomas 

Jennings. 284 

107.  Chance  impressions  of  four  fingers  found  on  a  porch  rail   ....    285 

108.  Diagrammatic  drawing  of  the  prints  shown  in  Fig.  107 285 

109.  Finger  print  of  Charles  Crispi      287 

110.  Chance  impression  on  a  pane  of  glass 287 

111.  Print  of  thumb  of  the  "Rose-bowl  burglar"      288 

112.  Chance  impression  found  on  a  rose-bowl 288 

113.  Chance  impression  of  left  index  of  the  "Axe-man  burglar"    .    .    289 

114.  Print  of  left  index  pattern  of  the  "Axe-man  burglar"     ....    290 

115.  Diagrams  showing  the  principles  involved  in  taking  finger  prints  293 

1 16.  Drawing  of  right,  middle  finger  pattern  of  "  Bangor  Billy,"  show- 

ing appearance  of  the  actual  ridges 294 

117.  Drawing  of  right  middle  finger  pattern  of  J.  C.,  showing  appear- 

ance of  the  actual  ridges 295 

118.  Diagram  showing  the  microscopic  structure  of  the  friction-skin  296 

119.  Print  from  middle  phalange  of  left  middle  finger  of  Boudet   .    .   301 

120.  Chance  impression  found  on  a  rosewood  jewel  box 302 

121.  Six  contiguous  sweat  pores  from  chance  impression  from  the 

rosewood  box 304 

122.  The  same  six  sweat  pores  of  Fig.  121,  obtained  from  a  print  of 

the  left  middle  finger  of  Boudet       304 

123.  Portion  of  friction  skin  l-16th  by  l-13th  of  an  inch  in  size,  en- 

larged 42  times;  taken  from  the  left  middle  finger  of  Boudet  306 


of 


14  List  of  Illustrations 


FIOUBK  PAGE 

124.     A  fork,  enlarged  32  diameters,  showing  sweat  pores 307 

rj.~>.     M.  Edmond  Locard  in  his  laboratory,  Lyons,  France     ....   310 
^ifcO.     Print  of  the  right  middle  finger  of  "Bangor  Billy"      .    ...    .   314 

127.  Twenty-one  forks  taken  from  Fig.  126 315 

128.  The  print  shown  in  Fig.  126,  with  forks  and  ends  designated       316 

129.  A  typical  twin-loop 323 

130.  Thirty-five  separate  forks  from  Fig.  129 324 

131.  A  typical  lateral  pocket 324 

132.  Fifty  separate  forks  from  Fig.  131,  isolated  from  the  rest  .    .    .   325 

133.  Sixty  separate  ends  from  Fig.  131,  isolated  from  the  rest  .    .    .   325 

134.  Print  of  right  thumb  of  a  little  girl,  divided  into  one  hundred 

squares,  with  table  to  accompany  same 326 

135.  Fifty  forks  and  one  hundred  and  thirty  ends  from  Fig.  134, 

isolated  from  the  rest 327 

136.  Print  of  the  right  middle  finger  of  J.  C 328 

137.  Print  of  the  right  middle  finger  of  J.  W 329 

138.  Area  surrounding  the  delta  of  Fig.  136,  enlarged  .11  diameters    .    330 

139.  Area  surrounding  the  delta  of  Fig.  137,  enlarged  11  diameters    .    330 

140.  Indian  pictograph  of  a  human  hand,  with  wrinkles  and  ridges     333 

141.  Marcello  Malpighi,  as  a  young  man      334 

142.  Marcello  Malpighi,  in  late  middle  life       335 

143.  John  Evangelist  Purkinje 336 

144.  Sir  Francis  Galton 343 

145.  Alphonse  Bertillon,  as  a  young  man 348 

146.  v   Alphonse  Bertillon,  in  late  middle  life,  shortly  before  his  death  349 

147.  Signalement  Card,  from  the  Prefecture  of  Police,  Paris  ....   350 

148.  Plain  impressions  of  right  index,  middle,  and  ring  finger,  as  used 

in  banks      354 

149.  Bank  check,  signed  by  the  usual  three  fingers,  and  surcharged 

with  the  signature 355 

150.  Bank  check,  showing  use  of  thumb  print  as  a  background  for  the 

numbers  expressing  the  sum 356 


PART  I 

Methods  Which  Furnish  Partial  Identification 


PERSONAL   IDENTIFICATION 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   PROBLEM 

"And  he  causeth  all,  both  small  and  great,  rich  and  poor,  free  and  bond, 
to  receive  a  mark  in  their  right  hand,  or  in  their  foreheads;  and  that  no  man 
might  buy  or  sell,  save  that  he  had  the  mark,  or  the  name  of  the  beast,  or  the 
number  of  his  name." Rev.  XIII:  16, 17. 

THROUGH  our  city  streets  pass  and  repass  vehicles  of  all  sorts,  each 
bearing  a  license  number,  conspicuously  displayed.  As  these 
numbers  are  all  recorded  at  the  place  where  each  vehicle  is  owned, 
they  furnish  an  easy  means  of  identifying  the  individual  vehicles. 

The  people  that  pass  in  a  double  current  upon  either  side  of  this 
stream  of  traffic  are  not  thus  registered ;  they  bear  no  identification  number, 
and  have  a  place  in  the  commonwealth  simply  by  virtue  of  a  personal 
name,  recorded  at  the  time  of  birth,  and  held  simply  in  the  memory  of 
the  individual  himself  and  of  his  personal  acquaintances.  Under  numerous 
circumstances,  some  of  them  by  no  means  rare,  this  loose  system,  relying 
as  it  does  upon  the  individual  memory,  and  the  willingness  to  be  identified, 
proves  insufficient  or  actually  misleading,  and  there  is  thus  great  need  of  a 
surer  method  of  definitely  describing  and  recording  each  human  individual. 
This  would  seem  to  be  possible  under  all  circumstances  only  by  making  use 
of  some  mark  or  peculiarity  permanently  and  unalterably  fixed  upon  the 
body  itself,  and  the  best  efforts  of  the  anthropologists  have  now  for  many 
years  been  devoted  to  this  question. 

It  will  naturally  be  asked  at  the  outset  what  are  the  circumstances 
under  which  the  personal  name  and  the  aspect  of  the  face  and  figure  are 
not  sufficient  for  identification,  and  the  present  connection  of  identification 
systems  with  criminals  unfortunately  causes  most  men  to  dismiss  the  whole 
matter  as  unimportant  for  honest  men;  yet  the  criminal  side  is  but  a  small 
part  of  the  whole  question,  and  to  one  case  involving  a  criminal  there  are 
a  dozen  in  which  the  individual  to  be  identified  has  committed  no  wrong, 
and  where  the  question  is  purely  a  civil  one. 

One  frequently  needs  to  identify  himself  at  a  bank  or  business  house; 
he  must  assert  his  claim  to  a  given  passport,  or  individual  check  or  ticket, 
issued  to  himself  alone;  he  must  frequently  prove  himself  the  accredited 

17 


18  Personal  Identification 


representative  of  a  firm  or  corporation;  and  at  the  time  of  writing  there  has 
come  up  the  great  need  of  definitely  recording  each  soldier  and  sailor  at 
the  time  and  place  of  recruiting.  The  method  sought  must,  moreover,  be 
one  by  which  the  body  may  be  identified  after  life  is  extinct,  or  when  the 
individual,  though  still  alive,  either  cannot  tell  who  he  is,  or  refuses  to  do  so. 
The  method  must  be  based  upon  such  bodily  characters  that  an  identifica- 
tion may  be  definitely  established  upon  bodies  found  on  the  field  of  battle, 
or  floating  in  the  sea,  even  after  serious  mutiliation. 

Even  apart  from  times  of  war,  there  are  the  numerous  disasters  by  fire 
or  flood,  by  railroad  collision  or  explosion,  in  which  the  authorities  have  to 
deal  with  bodies  often  so  badly  disfigured  that  they  cannot  be  recognized 
by  ordinary  means.  To  prevent  such  mistakes  many  men,  on  their  own 
initiative,  carry  numbered  "identification  tags,"  issued  by  some  society, 
bank,  or  other  corporation,  but  the  number  of  those  thus  safeguarded  is 
still  very  small,  and  there  are  countless  numbers  of  the  "nameless  dead" 
whose  death  can  never  be  legally  proven. 

This  frequent  failure  to  identify  often  prevents  the  granting  of  a  clear 
title  to  property,  or  may  even  result  in  the  legal  "death"  of  a  man,  whose 
subsequent  return  causes  serious  legal  difficulties  both  to  himself  and  others ; 
it  also  allows  the  disappearance  of  a  man  who  for  some  reason  wishes  thus 
to  shirk  certain  responsibilities.  It  is  often  important  to  properly  identify 
a  body  because  of  questions  of  inheritance,  insurance,  pension,  or  other 
matters  that  concern  property,  and  the  ease  with  which  deception  can  be 
practiced  with  a  disfigured  body  has  given  rise  to  many  cases  of  fraud. 
In  the  case  of  great  estates,  and  even  of  thrones,  proof  of  the  death  of  the 
heir,  with  a  satisfactory  identification  of  the  body,  is  of  the  greatest 
importance,  and  where  this  had  not  been  done,  has  proven  the  cause  of 
much  annoyance.  Thus,  to  frame  a  hypothetical  case:  the  Prince  Im- 
perial of  France,  son  of  Napoleon  III  and  the  Empress  Eugenie,  as  is  well 
known,  met  his  death  in  South  Africa  at  the  hands  of  Zulus,  during  their 
war  with  England,  and  was  found  in  the  Veldt,  pierced  with  seventeen 
assegai  wounds.  His  body  was  embalmed,  and  brought  back  to  England, 
where  it  now  rests,  perfectly  well  authenticated.  Suppose,  however,  that 
by  some  chance  his  body  had  not  been  found,  or,  if  found,  had  not  been 
identified,  or  had  perhaps  been  buried  on  the  spot;  what  chances  there 
would  have  been  for  adventurers  of  similar  build  and  bodily  appearance 
to  have  shown  themselves  in  France  before  the  sympathizers  with  the 
late  dynasty,  and  claim  that  they  were  the  lost  heir,  long  the  victim  of  a 
mistake,  or  of  intentional  fraud! 

In  fact,  claimants  of  various  sorts,  ranging  all  the  way  from  those 
who  pretend  to  be  heirs  to  modest  estates  to  those  who  attempt  to  estab- 
lish their  right  to  thrones,  form  a  class  of  most  troublesome  cases  which 
often,  after  a  lapse  of  centuries,  continue  to  cause  speculation.  Plainly, 


The  Problem  \g 


then,  there  is  the  greatest  need  of  establishing  the  absolute  identity  of  all 
such  by  means  finally  convincing  and  offering  no  room  for  doubt,  if  such 
means  are  ever  possible. 

Of  the  claimants  to  estates  the  famous  "Tichborne  Claimant"  is 
one  of  the  best  known,  as  the  case  was  continued  in  the  courts  of  Chancery 
for  some  eight  years  (1866-1874),  costing  large  sums  of  money.  Roger 
Tichborne,  the  heir  to  a  large  estate  in  England,  was  born  in  Paris  in  1829 
and  lived  there  until  he  was  sixteen  years  old.  He  was  then  taken  to 
England,  where  he  was  at  school  until  1849,  when  he  entered  the  Dragoon 
Guards.  In  1853  he  went  to  South  America,  keeping  up  a  continuous 
correspondence  with  his  mother,  but  was  lost  at  sea,  somewhere  between 
Rio  and  Kingston,  Jamaica,  in  1854.  His  ship,  the  Bella,  was  never 
heard  from,  and  no  survivors  were  ever  known  to  have  appeared.  Every- 
one but  his  mother  believed  him  lost,  but  she,  after  her  husband's  death, 
began  advertising  for  him.  On  October  9,  1865,  a  man  was  found  in 
Wagga  Wagga,  Australia,  who  confessed  to  being  the  missing  heir.  He 
came  to  England,  and  although  he  did  not  in  any  way  correspond  to  the 
missing  man,  the  mother  believed  that  he  was  the  lost  son.  Among  the 
facts  brought  out  were  that  he  knew  no  French  ( !),  remembered  nothing  of 
his  school  or  of  the  studies  there  acquired,  pronounced  the  ^Eneid  of  Virgil 
to  be  Greek,  and  declared  that  Caesar  was  a  Greek  poet.  More  pertinent 
in  our  present  line  of  investigation,  he  had  no  tattoo,  whereas  Roger  had 
a  tattoo  in  two  places,  but  showed  a  brown  birthmark  on  his  side  as  a 
"proof"  that  he  was  the  missing  Roger.  He  tried  on  the  Dragoon's  hel- 
met that  Roger  used  to  wear,  but,  even  after  removing  the  paper  that 
was  wrapped  around  the  inside,  found  it  altogether  too  small.  He  was 
finally  identified  by  the  Court  of  Chancery  as  one  Arthur  Orton,  a  butcher 
from  the  east  end  of  London,  and  sentenced  on  February  28,  1874,  to 
imprisonment  for  fourteen  years.  On  his  release,  which  took  place  in 
1884,  because  of  good  conduct,  he  persisted  in  his  claim,  and  went  about 
in  concert  halls  and  dime  museums  doing  a  ten-minute  "turn,"  in  which 
he  asserted  his  identity  as  Sir  Roger  Tichborne.  About  1895  he  published 
a  "  confession  "  in  the  columns  of  the  People,  a  popular  magazine,  but  later 
on  recanted  again,  and  denied  the  authenticity  of  this  confession,  which 
he  charged  to  journalistic  enterprise.  He  died  in  April,  1898,  and  on  his 
coffin  was  inscribed  "Sir  Roger  Charles  Doughty  Tichborne." 

Still  more  remarkable,  because  more  was  at  stake,  have  been  the 
numerous  claimants  to  thrones  in  every  country  of  Europe,  some  of  them 
long  supported  by  a  large  party  of  adherents,  or  leaving  a  permanent 
doubt  among  historians. 

Thus  Frederick  the  Second,  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  died  at  Ferentino,  Italy,  aged  55,  in  the  year  1250.  His 
unexpected  taking  off  threw  the  empire  into  great  confusion,  and  civil 


20  Personal  Identification 


wars  raged  for  many  years,  tranquillity  being  restored  with  the  election 
of  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  as  his  successor  in  1273.  In  the  eleventh  year  of 
the  reign  of  Rudolf,  in  1284,  there  appeared  an  aged  man,  bearing  a  gen- 
eral resemblance  to  the  late  emperor,  and  asserted  that  he  was  Frederick. 
Tired  of  the  world  and  of  ruling,  he  said,  he  had  not  really  died  at  Ferentino, 
but  had  retired  to  a  monastery,  first  having  arranged  to  have  a  body  sub- 
stituted for  himself,  and  buried  with  due  pomp.  Naturally  there  were 
very  few  of  his  most  trusted  friends  in  the  secret,  and  they  had  died  in  the 
meantime,  leaving  no  witnesses  of  the  transaction.  Whether  the  old 
man's  claims  were  true  or  not  could  never  be  decided,  and  the  luckless 
claimant  was  burned  at  the  stake. 

At  a  later  date  the  summary  and  unknown  means  taken  by  the  wicked 
Richard  III  of  England  to  rid  himself  of  his  two  small  nephews  developed 
in  later  years  a  long  series  of  pretenders,  the  majority  of  whom  may  be 
dismissed  without  more  ado.  The  elder  of  the  two  would  have  been  King 
Edward  the  Fifth,  and  according  to  general  report  was  actually  crowned 
in  secret;  the  other,  as  the  next  heir,  was  another  Richard,  and  King  of 
England  in  the  event  of  his  older  brother's  death.  As  is  well  known, 
they  disappeared  during  a  night  spent  in  the  Tower,  and  there  is  a  popular 
tradition,  although  not  substantiated,  that  they  were  smothered  in  their 
beds  by  hired  assassins.  Their  bodies  were  never  found. 

In  1491,  some  seven  years  after  this  occurrence,  and  during  the  reign 
of  Henry  VII,  there  appeared  in  Portugal  a  young,  fair-haired  English- 
man who  claimed  to  be  the  younger  of  the  two  princes,  Richard,  Duke 
of  York.  Taken  up  by  the  York  party,  hostile  to  the  reigning  House  of 
Lancaster,  the  young  man  was  brought  first  to  Ireland,  and  then  to  France, 
his  presence  exciting  hope  and  a  spirit  naturally  rebellious  to  the  King. 
He  finally  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  the  Lancastrians,  who,  in 
1499,  compelled  him  to  read  from  a  public  scaffold  his  "confession,"  stat- 
ing that  he  was  simply  a  fraudulent  pretender,  and  that  he  was  in  reality 
one  Perkin  Warbeck,  son  of  John  Warbeck,  and  a  Welshman  by  birth. 
The  confession  was,  however,  forced  under  threat  of  torture,  and  had  no 
legal  value.  After  this,  however,  he  never  regained  his  liberty,  but  after 
a  long  imprisonment  was  executed  at  Tyburn  November  23,  1519.  This 
case  was  always  a  mysterious  one,  and  was  never  satisfactorily  settled. 
Many  have  believed  that  he  was  really  the  claimant  he  asserted  himself 
to  be. 

Probably  no  historic  mystery  ever  raised  so  large  a  crop  of  pretenders 
as  the  case  of  the  luckless  son  of  Louis  XVI  of  France,  upon  whom  broke 
the  full  fury  of  the  French  Revolution.  He  was  born  at  Versailles  March 
27,  1785,  amid  regal  splendor,  and  christened  Louis  Charles.  By  the 
death  of  his  older  brother  in  1789  he  became  the  heir  to  the  throne  of 
France,  the  "Dauphin."  After  many  sad  adventures,  including  an  un- 


The  Problem  21 


successful  attempt  to  escape  from  the  populace,  he  was  torn  from  his 
parents,  placed  under  the  care  of  a  degenerate  beast  of  a  jailor,  "Black 
Simon,"  and  finally  is  reported  to  have  died  in  his  prison  June  8,  1795,  at 
the  age  of  ten  years  and  two  months.  The  emaciated  body,  scarred  by 
ill-usage,  and  covered  with  the  ravages  of  scrofula,  was  buried  in  an  un- 
known spot,  and  never  found. 

As  was  to  be  expected  in  a  case  that  offered  so  much  inducement,  and 
which  was  fraught  with  so  much  mystery,  backed  also  by  powerful  polit- 
ical and  religious  parties,  there  developed  from  time  to  time  no  less  than 
thirty  claimants  to  the  position  of  Dauphin  of  France. 

Thus,  among  others,  there  was  Hervagault,  the  putative  son  of  a 
poor  Norman  tailor;  Mathurin  Bruneau,  who,  although  a  vulgar  peasant, 
and  the  son  of  a  maker  of  wooden  shoes,  became  for  a  time  a  real  menace 
to  the  government;  Hebert,  who  came  with  an  impossible  tale  of  having 
escaped  from  his  jailor  enclosed  within  the  body  of  a  wooden  rocking- 
horse;  Naundorff,  a  Polish  Jew,  whose  two  children  continued  the  claims 
after  their  father's  death;  and  Augustus  Meves,  self-styled  "Auguste  de 
Bourbon."  For  Americans,  however,  there  is  always  a  peculiar  charm 
in  the  story  of  Eleazar  Williams,  a  boy  of  the  same  age  as  the  lost  Dauphin, 
who,  when  first  known,  was  living  among  the  "French"  or  "Christian- 
ized" Mohawks  of  Caughnawaga,  above  Montreal,  as  the  foster  (?)  son 
of  John  Williams,  a  Mohawk  with  some  English  blood,  derived  from  a 
captive  from  Deerfield,  Massachusetts.  Williams  was  very  unlike  his 
brothers  and  sisters,  and,  although  the  birth  of  each  of  these  was  recorded 
in  the  local  parish  register,  that  of  Eleazar,  or  "Lazar,"  was  not  to  be 
found.  He  had  been  considered  by  his  associates  to  be  almost  a  half- 
witted boy,  but,  receiving  a  violent  blow  on  the  head  at  the  age  of  four- 
teen, the  result  of  a  fall,  he  regained  glimpses  of  an  earlier  life,  in  which 
figured  at  first  a  beautiful  lady  (Marie  Antoinette?)  and  much  joy,  and 
later  intense  suffering,  mixed  with  suggestions  of  a  hideous  face!  Some- 
what later  he  and  his  foster-brother  John  were  brought  down  to  Long- 
meadow,  Massachusetts,  to  be  educated.  Lazar  responded  with  ease  to 
the  civilized  surroundings,  and  learned  with  great  rapidity;  John  was 
dull  and  uninterested  in  his  studies,  and  after  a  brief  stay  returned  to  his 
Indian  life.  In  Northampton  Eleazar  was  thrown  into  a  panic  on  being 
shown  a  likeness  of  Black  Simon,  the  jailor.  His  body,  also,  showed  the 
scars  both  of  scrofula  and  of  past  ill-treatment.  There  are  also  stories 
of  titled  Frenchmen  who  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Caughnawaga  and  burst 
into  tears  at  the  sight  of  Eleazar,  or  who  met  Mr.  Williams  in  later  years, 
and  affirmed  the  story  of  his  birth;  there  is  told,  too,  the  tale  of  a  French 
couple,  accompanied  by  a  young  boy,  who  appeared  at  Albany  in  1795, 
and  who  journeyed  to  the  northward  (Caughnawaga?);  also  that  the  lady 
had  been  maid-of-honor  to  the  late  Queen  of  France,  Marie  Antoinette, 


22 


Personal  Identification 


mother  of  the  Dauphin,  and  that  both  of  them  treated  the  boy  with 
great  respect  and  addressed  him  as  "Monsieur  Louis." 

But  this  story,  like  so  many  others  of  like  nature,  must  remain  a 
mystery,  although  it  is  now  rather  generally  discredited. 

It  is  because  of  such  intricate  problems  of  individual  identity,  which 
are  constantly  met  with  in  the  courts,  in  both  criminal  and  civil  cases, 


FIGURE  1.  Man  and  woman  of  the  Haida  tribe,  British  Columbia,  tattooed  with 
heraldic  emblems,  signifying  their  totem,  or  family.  The  man  belongs  to  the  Wolf 
gens,  and  has  the  design  of  the  supernatural  wolf,  the  "  Waska,"  split  in  halves,  upon 
his  back.  The  woman  is  a  member  of  the  Bear  gens,  and  has  the  head  of  that  animal 
upon  her  breast;  also  entire  bodies  of  the  same  upon  both  forearms  and  upon  both 
legs.  Just  below  her  shoulders,  upon  the  upper  arms,  are  eagles'  heads,  probably  for 
pure  ornamentation,  but  perhaps  designed  to  mark  the  individual.  (After  Mallory  and 
Swan.) 


that  the  French  writer  of  detective  stories,  Emile  Gaboriau,  wrote  many 
years  ago:  "These  difficult  and  delicate  questions  of  personal  identity 
are  the  bane  of  magistrates.  Railroads,  photography,  and  telegraphic 
communication  have  multiplied  the  means  of  investigation  in  vain.  Every 
day  it  happens  that  malefactors  succeed  in  deceiving  the  judge  in  regard 
to  their  true  personality,  and  thus  escape  the  consequences  of  their  former 


The  Problem 


23 


crime.  This  is  so  frequently  the  case  that  a  witty  attorney-general  once 
laughingly  remarked  -  and  perhaps  he  was  only  half  in  jest  -'  This 
uncertainty  in  regard  to  identity  will  cease  only  on  the  day  when  the  law 
prescribes  that  a  number  shall  be  branded  upon  the  shoulder  of  every 
child  whose  birth  is  reported  to  the  Mayor'."*  Whimsical  though  this 
proposal  is,  it  is  literally  carried  out  among  many  primitive  peoples,  and 
the  absolute  identity  of  individual  bodies  is  rendered  practically  certain 
by  the  use  of  various  artificial  marks,  such  as  tattooing,  scarification  and 
the  like. 

In  such  cases,  where  the  members  of  even  neighboring  villages  are 
held  in  much  suspicion,  the  first  effort  is  to  mark  all  the  members  of  a 


FIGURE  2.  A  Haida  heraldic  emblem,  one-half  natural  size.  This  was  taken  di- 
rectly from  the  back  of  a  native  of  the  Thunder-bird  gens,  and  represents  this  creature, 
a  popular  character  in  their  mythology?  (After  Swan.) 


given  community  to  insure  them  against  being  killed  at  sight  by  their 
countrymen,  who  might  not  know  them  personally  and  might  mistake 
them  for  members  of  some  other  tribe.  Thus,  the  first  and  most  important 
mark  is  that  of  the  village  or  gens  to  which  the  individual  belongs,  after 
which  more  detailed  information  may  be  conveyed  in  the  same  way. 

Thus,  in  the  two  Haida  Indians  from  British  Columbia  shown  here 
(Figure  1),  the  tattooed  patterns  are  heraldic  emblems  signifying  their 
totem,  or  family.  The  man  is  of  the  Wolf  gens,  and  has  the  design  of  the 
supernatural  wolf,  the  "waska,"  split  in  halves,  upon  his  back.  The 
woman  belongs  to  the  gens  of  the  3ear,  and  has  the  head  of  that  animal 
upon  her  breast;  also  entire  bodies  of  the  same  upon  both  forearms  and 
upon  both  legs.  The  eagles'  heads  upon  her  upper  arms  are  personal 

*In  "  Monsieur  LeCoq,"  Book  I,  Chapter  XXI. 


24 


Personal  Identification 


adornments,  without  special  significance,  but  would  serve  to  identify  her 
to  her  friends  and  acquaintances,  even  though  the  body  was  found  in  a 
mutilated  state.  The  second  figure  (Figure  2)  represents  a  third  emblem, 


FIGURE  3.  Woman  from  the  Middle  Congo  region  (Ileku,  Coquilhatville),  adorned 
with  identification  scars.  These  show  her  tribe,  her  village,  and  possibly  her  individual 
identity.  Notice  the  raised  crest  up  and  down  her  forehead,  the  marks  on  her  left 
shoulder,  the  three  vertical  rows  of  short  scars  on  the  chest,  and  the  entire  field  of  these 
covering  her  abdomen.  A  large  crest  of  complex  pattern,  here  scarcely  visible,  lies 
on  the  temporal  region  on  both  sides  of  the  head,  from  eye  to  ear.  (After  F.  Starr.) 


The  Problem  25 


that  of  the  "Thunder-bird,"  used  to  mark  the  members  of  the  family  of 
that  name.  This  was  copied  directly  from  the  back  of  a  native,  and  is 
given  here  at  half  the  natural  size. 

Among  the  inhabitants  of  the  Congo  there  frequently  occurs  an 
elaborate  form  of  bodily  decoration,  consisting  of  raised  scars,  and  other 
skin  deformations,  which  mark  most  effectively  the  members  of  each 
village  and  declare  their  pedigree.  The  photograph  shown  here  (Figure  3), 
taken  by  Prof.  Frederick  Starr  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  shows  a  comb 
or  crest  up  and  down  the  middle  of  the  forehead,  a  long  ridge  on  the  left 
shoulder,  three  vertical  rows  of  short  scars  on  the  chest,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  a  series  that  cover  the  abdomen.  On  the  profile  of  this  same 
woman  there  is  shown  an  elaborate  mark  placed  horizontally  across  the 
temple,  from  eye  to  ear.  Unfortunately  we  have  not  the  key  to  this 
elaborate  method  of  labeling,  but  like  the  Breton  caps  or  other  form  of 
European  costuming,  there  is  indicated  the  village  where  the  person  lives 
and  perhaps  also  details  of  rank  and  family.  Such  tribal  marks  are  of 
the  utmost  importance  among  a  primitive  people,  since  in  general  all  idea 
of  ethics  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  tribe  are  unknown,  and  a  foreigner 
has  no  rights  of  property  or  of  life,  and  may  be  killed  at  sight.  This  was 
the  meaning  of  the  "mark  of  Cain"  in  the  old  story  in  Genesis;  the  mark 
was  no  sign  of  disgrace,  not  the  brand  of  a  murderer,  but  the  mark  of  the 
tribe  to  which  he  was  banished,  and  granted  in  clemency  as  a  direct  re- 
sponse to  Cain's  fears,  that  he  might  be  received  as  a  member,  and  not 
slain  at  sight.  It  was  the  first  recorded  instance  of  a  forged  pass- 
port ! 

Clearly,  then,  the  savages,  with  their  plainly,  although  often  hid- 
eously, marked  bodies,  have  solved  the  problem  of  bodily  identification 
with  which  we  are  vainly  wrestling;  the  marks  are  given  in  youth,  and 
can  neither  be  eradicated  without  showing  the  signs  of  the  attempt,  nor 
can  they  be  added  in  later  life  and  look  the  same.  Dead  or  alive,  they  can 
recognize  their  individuals  without  possibility  of  mistake;  no  old  man 
can  for  a  moment  claim  to  be  their  lost  chief;  no  stranger  from  elsewhere 
can  claim  to  be  a  son  of  the  tribe.  A  dead  body,  even  badly  mutilated, 
can  be  instantly  and  definitely  identified,  and  no  criminal  can  take  shelter 
under  an  assumed  name. 

But  by  this  time  the  reader  may  be  asking,  do  we  propose  to  go  back 
to  the  savages  and  actually  mark,  tattoo,  or  otherwise  disfigure  the  bodies 
of  our  citizens  to  insure  an  absolute  identification?  Are  we  taking  seriously 
the  fanciful  suggestion  of  Gaboriau,  whimsically  introduced  in  the  pages 
of  a  novel?  With  our  wonderful  modern  surgery  this  could  be  done  pain- 
lessly and  safely;  with  our  wearing  of  clothes  the  marks  of  identification 
could  be  readily  concealed;  and  certainly,  if  we  had  no  other  way,  the 
thing  might  be  actually  considered. 


26  Personal  Identification 


It  happens,  however,  that  no  such  artificial  markings  are  necessary,  for 
every  human  being  is  marked  by  Nature,  some  months  before  birth,  with  a 
highly  complex  design,  or  system  of  designs,  unchanged  throughout  life,  abso- 
lutely individual  and  impossible  to  duplicate,  and  for  a  number  of  reasons, 
remarkably  resistent  to  decay.  These  markings  are,  besides,  easy  to  record, 
and  quite  possible  to  formulate  and  classify,  making  it  a  simple  matter  to 
find  a  given  record  out  of  a  set  of  many  thousands  within  a  few  minutes. 

We  refer  to  the  system  of  epidermic  ridges  (not  the  wrinkles)  that 
cover  the  entire  palmar  surface  of  the  hand,  and  the  sole  of  the  foot,  every 
portion  of  which  is  so  individual,  if  we  take  into  consideration  the  micro- 
scopic details,  that  by  a  comparison  of  a  small  area  of  this  skin  with  a  pre- 
viously taken  print  of  the  same,  an  absolutely  positive  identification  can  be 
made. 

This  system  of  identification  by  the  friction  ridges,  as  they  are  known 
to  scientists,  receives  a  full  treatment  in  Part  II  of  this  work,  where 
a  special  emphasis  is  put  upon  that  portion  of  the  subject  already 
well  known  under  the  name  of  the  "Finger-Print  System,"  enabling  it 
to  be  used  as  a  practical  manual  for  this  work.  Part  I  is  devoted 
to  other  methods  of  identification,  some  of  which  are  more  obvious  but 
less  certain  than  that  based  upon  the  friction  ridges;  these  methods  are 
studied  critically,  and  their  deficiencies  as  well  as  their  advantages  are 
considered  at  some  length.  The  work  is  thus  made  as  complete  as  pos- 
sible, since  every  known  method  by  which  an  individual  identification 
is  possible  receives  at  least  some  mention,  while  the  more  scientific  and 
accurate  ones  are  treated  in  detail. 


CHAPTER  II 

SIGHT   RECOGNITION  AND   ITS   UNCERTAINTIES 

"On  sait  en  effet  que  tout  animal  differe  par  certains  points  des  animaux 
qui  lui  sont  le  plus  semblables;  et  ces  differences  Ugeres,  que  Von  rencontre 
communement  chez  les  sujets  du  meme  espece,  ont  ete  designees  sous  le  nom 
de  caracteres  individuels."* —  L.  Blanc;  Les  Anomalies,  etc.,  Paris,  1893. 

SIGHT  recognition,  the  ability  to  recognize  our  friends  and  acquain- 
tances by  simply  looking  at  them,  depends  upon  two  things:  the 
extraordinary  amount  of  variability  of  all  parts  of  the  human  body, 
especially  the  face,  and  the  relative  permanence  through  life  of  the  in- 
dividual characters.  We  first  learn  the  features  of  a  new  face;  we  gain 
the  ability  to  recall  it,  with  greater  or  less  vividness,  in  the  absence 
of  its  possessor;  and,  when  this  degree  of  knowledge  is  reached,  we  find 
it  easy  to  recognize  the  same  face,  or  even  a  photograph  of  it,  when  it  is 
actually  presented  before  our  eyes. 

If,  now,  we  analyze  further  the  appearance  presented  by  an  individ- 
ual face,  the  things  about  it  which  we  remember,  and  upon  which  we  base 
our  recognition,  we  find  that  a  face  consists  of  two  things,  the  features, 
and  the  expression,  the  one  more  or  less  rigid  and  immovable,  the  other 
constantly  changing  under  the  influence  of  the  mental  moods  of  the  owner. 

The  shape  of  the  features  is  the  direct  result  of  that  of  the  underlying 
bones,  and  as  these  vary  individually  in  their  curves,  surfaces,  and  pro- 
portions, so  the  flesh  which  covers  them  exhibits  as  great  a  degree  of  varia- 
bility. Individual  skulls,  as  seen  in  an  anthropological  collection,  vary 
as  greatly  as  would  the  same  number  of  living  faces,  and  since  the  fleshy 
parts  of  a  face  show  at  any  given  point  about  the  same  actual  thickness 
in  all  individuals,  it  is  evident  that  the  variation  in  the  external  features 
is  mainly  due  to  differences  in  the  skulls.  (See  Chapter  VII,  below.) 

The  expression,  on  the  other  hand,  which  is  largely  occasioned  by 
slight  motions  of  the  soft  parts,  is  due  mainly  to  the  action  of  a  thin  layer 
of  muscle,  spread  over  the  face  like  a  mask  interposed  between  the  bone 
and  the  external  skin,  to  both  of  which  its  fibers  are  attached  in  certain 
places.  The  action  of  the  numerous  semi-independent  slips,  the  fibers 
of  which  run  in  different  directions,  causes  the  overlying  skin  to  throw  it- 

*We  know  in  fact  that  every  animal  differs  in  certain  points  from  the  animals  that 
most  closely  resemble  it;  and  these  slight  differences,  which  we  commonly  find  among 
the  subjects  of  the  same  species,  are  designated  by  the  name  of  individual  character. 

27 


28  Personal  Identification 


self  into  furrows  and  wrinkles,  dimples  and  ridges,  under  the  influence 
of  varying  mental  states,  or  as  an  unconscious  aid  to  speech.  As  these 
changes  are  particularly  individual  and  striking,  and  as  they  form  a  definite 
reflex  of  the  very  character,  it  is  these,  rather  than  the  more  rigid  features, 
that  one  comes  especially  to  recognize,  so  that  a  caricaturist  may  distort 
the  proportions  of  a  face  as  much  as  he  likes,  and  yet  produce  a  likeness 
easily  recognized  by  simply  preserving  some  of  the  most  usual  and  char- 
acteristic lines  produced  by  the  facial  muscles. 

But,  wholly  apart  from  the  face,  every  other  portion  of  the  body  is 
equally  individual.  Although  ordinarily  covered  by  the  clothing,  the 
peculiarly  individual  proportions  of  muscle  and  bone,  as  they  occur  in  arm 
or  chest,  hip  or  leg,  make  themselves  almost  as  clearly  manifest  in  the 
gait  and  habitual  gestures,  as  though  the  subject  stood  unclothed  before 
the  observer.  The  voice  also,  one  of  the  most  distinctly  individual  of 
human  traits,  is  modified  not  alone  by  the  qualities  of  the  vocal  organs 
themselves,  but  equally  by  the  configuration  of  such  adjacent  parts  as 
the  walls  of  the  chest,  the  bones  of  the  face,  and  the  configuration  of  the 
nose.  It  was  once  the  experience  of  one  of  the  authors  to  recognize  a  man 
sitting  in  the  reading-room  of  a  public  library,  entirely  concealed  by  an 
open  newspaper,  through  the  slight  noise  the  man  made  in  clearing  his 
throat.  As  with  the  individuality  in  the  tones  of  a  given  violin,  due  to  the 
exact  form,  proportions  and  materials  of  which  the  box  is  made,  so  this 
man,  and  this  man  alone  in  all  our  acquaintance,  was  built  in  the  precise 
way  to  render  possible  the  exact  quality  of  tone  shown  in  his  every  vocal 
utterance. 

It  would  seem,  then,  with  the  well-nigh  endless  possibilities  of  varia- 
tion in  every  way,  that  sight  recognition  of  a  man  once  known  would  be 
in  all  cases  absolutely  reliable,  and  that  a  mistake  in  identity,  when  a  full 
opportunity  for  examination  is  given,  could  never  occur.  Yet  in  actual 
experience  one  is  frequently  seeing  people  whom  he  thinks  he  recognizes 
only  to  find  that  he  has  accosted  an  entire  stranger,  and  a  few  experiences 
of  this  kind  make  him  more  charitable  to  the  unknown  man  who  takes  him 
for  an  old  acquaintance.  Every  president  or  other  figure  of  national  im- 
portance has  at  least  one  "double"  whom  the  newspapers  are  fond  of  ex- 
ploiting, and  the  close  resemblance  between  King  George  V  of  England  and 
the  ex-Czar  of  Russia,  Nicholas  Romanoff,  is  surprising,  even  taking  the 
close  relationship  into  consideration. 

To  this  close  resemblance  of  certain  individuals,  a  repetition  of  types, 
as  it  were,  are  due  the  frequent  awkward  mistakes,  which  are  within 
every  man's  experience,  and  which  cause  much  annoyance.  Typical  of 

these  is  the  following  instance,  extracted  from  a  letter.  "When  Dr.  R 

was  married,  a  friend  named  T '  stood  up '  with  him,  and  the  intimacy 

continues  to  this  day.  Some  few  years  ago  Dr.  R was  in  the  smoking 


Sight  Recognition  29 


car  of  a  train,  returning  from  a  football  game.  Facing  him,  on  the  other 

side  of  the  car,  and  about  ten  feet  away,  was  T ,  and  Dr.  R smiled, 

nodded,  and  waved  his  hand  at  him.  As  the  latter  made  no  sign  of  recogni- 
tion Dr.  R thought  he  was  irritated  at  something,  and  went  over  to 

him,  took  hold  of  his  arm,  and  shook  him  familiarly,  saying  at  the  same 
time,  'What  is  the  matter  with  you?  Why  don't  you  speak?'  The 

man  replied,  'What  is  the  matter  with  you?'  and  then  Dr.  R saw  that 

the  man  was  a  stranger,  yet  had  spoken  to  him  and  even  shaken  him  before 
he  found  it  out." 

In  much  the  same  way  one  of  the  authors  saw  what  he  thought  to  be 
his  college  roommate,  sitting  obliquely  across  the  aisle  from  him  in  a  train, 
but,  as  he  had  no  reason  for  expecting  to  see  him  within  a  thousand  miles 
of  the  spot,  he  waited  for  some  time  before  speaking,  meanwhile  studying 
him  critically.  And  in  every  detail  he  stood  the  test.  The  profile,  the 
half  side  face,  with  prominent  and  characteristic  cheek  bones,  were  exact 
in  every  particular,  although  the  friend  was  of  rather  unusual  appearance, 
and  could  not  be  easily  duplicated.  Like  the  roommate,  this  man  wore 
gold-bowed  glasses,  the  bows  cutting  into  the  flesh  of  the  temples  in  the 
familiar  way;  and  the  gestures  and  the  posture,  too,  as  he  talked  with 
two  ladies,  were  also  perfectly  natural. 

In  spite  of  all  these  coincidences,  however,  natural  and  artificial  as- 
well,  the  man  proved  to  be  an  entire  stranger,  as  was  later  established 
beyond  all  doubt,  yet  even  after  engaging  the  stranger  in  conversation, 
much  of  the  deception  still  remained. 

To  the  other  author  a  similar  experience  came  in  much  the  same  way> 
In  the  autumn  of  1908  he  was  on  the  train  coming  from  Portland,  Maine, 
to  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  and  in  a  seat  about  fifteen  feet  in  front  of  him 
sat  a  lady  from  the  latter  place,  known  to  him  from  her  childhood.  She 
was  in  company  with  a  gentleman  and  a  little  boy..  This  lady,  who  was 
remarkably  handsome,  and  of  a  type  rather  unusual,  had  her  hair  done  up 
in  the  way  she  was  accustomed  to  wear  it  ordinarily,  and  was  wearing  a 
wide  black  hat.  The  car  was  well  lighted,  and  as  the  author  knew  that  the 
individual  in  question  had  a  husband  and  little  boy,  it  never  occurred  to 
him  to  doubt  the  identification.  The  technical  conditions  for  a  complete 
identification  were  perfect,  as  recognized  by  the  courts;  i.  e.,  the  witness 
was  (1)  sober,  (2)  not  under  any  excitement,  and  (3)  not  in  fear.  Yet  when 
he  passed  out  of  the  car  at  Dover,  and  went  by  the  person,  she  proved  to- 
be  an  utter  stranger,  and  on  seeing  her  full  in  the  face,  almost  all  resem- 
blance even  was  lost.  Here  the  recognition  was  plainly  based  upon  certain 
proportions  and  other  characters  as  they  appeared  from  a  single  point  of 
view,  strengthened  perhaps  by  the  probability  involved,  yet  many  a  time 
in  the  court  a  similar  faulty  recognition  passes  for  evidence,  and  that,  too,, 
of  a  kind  to  be  taken  by  the  average  juryman  as  absolute  proof. 


30 


Personal  Identification 


Even  among  the  restricted  circles  of  those  coming  within  the  juris- 
diction of  police  bureaus  there  are  occasionally  cases  of  close  similarity. 
The  three  photographs  shown  here  (Figure  4)  are  those  of  three  separate 
men  who  have  come  under  the  surveillance  of  Scotland  Yard,  and  are  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  tell  apart.  That  this  close  similarity  does  not  extend 
to  the  finger  prints  is  seen  by  comparing  the  prints  of  the  three  right 


FIG.  4.  Photographs  of  three  men  who  closely  resemble  one  another.  The 
patterns  of  the  right  thumbs,  shown  below  the  respective  portraits,  are 
distinctly  different,  although  the  two  on  the  right  belong  to  the  same  class  of 
patterns.  These  photographs  have  been  extensively  quoted,  but  came  origin- 
.ally  from  Scotland  Yard,  London. 

thumbs,  attached  to  the  corresponding  photographs.  These,  although  in 
two  cases  somewhat  similar,  cause  no  difficulty  in  distinguishing  them. 

The  second  case,  in  many  ways  the  most  remarkable  on  record  of  the 
physical  duplication  of  two  unrelated  individuals,  and  rendered  still  more 
incredible  by  the  coincidence  of  the  name,  is  yet  established  beyond  all 
possible  doubt,  and  the  photographs  and  other  data  here  presented  came 
from  the  United  States  Penitentiary  at  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  where  they 
were  originally  collected. 

It  appears  that,  in  the  year  1903,  one  Will  West,  a  new  prisoner,  was 


Sight  Recognition 


31 


committed  to  this  institution.  (Figure  5.)  A  few  days  after  his  committal 
he  was  brought  into  the  office  of  the  record  clerk  to  be  measured  and  photo- 
graphed. The  clerk  thought  that  he  remembered  the  prisoner,  and  said, 
"You  have  been  here  before."  "No,  sir,"  answered  West;  but,  as  the 


FIG.  5.     The  Bertillon  photograph  of  Will  West,  No.  3426  of  the  United 
States  Penitentiary   at   Leavenworth,    Kans. 


FIGURE  6.  The  Bertillon  photograph  of  William  West,  \o.  2626  of  the  United 
States  Penitentiary  at  Leavenworth,  Kans.  This  is  a  different  man  from  the  foregoing 
(Figure  5),  but  has  practically  the  same  Bertillon  measurements,  and  almost  the  same 
name.  Both  were  at  Leavenworth  at  the  same  time. 


32 


Personal  Identification 


clerk  was  positive,  he  ran  his  measuring  instruments  over  him,  and,  from 
the  Bertillon  measurements  thus  obtained,  went  to  the  file,  and  returned 
with  the  card  the  measurements  called  for,  properly  filled  out,  accompanied 
with  the  photograph  and  bearing  the  name  "William  West"  (Figure  6). 
This  card  was  shown  to  the  prisoner,  who  grinned  in  amazement,  and  said, 
"  That's  my  picture,  but  I  don't  know  where  you  got  it,  for  I  know  I  have 
never  been  here  before."  The  record  clerk  turned  the  card  over,  and  read 
the  particulars  there  given,  including  the  statements  that  this  man  was 


a 


FIGURE  7.  The  two  left  index  patterns  of  the  two  West  negroes  of  Figures  5  and 
6.  That  of  Will  West  (a)  (3426)  is  an  Inside  Whorl  by  11  ridges;  that  of  William  West 
(b)  (2626)  an  Invaded  Loop,  with  a  count  of  18  ridges.  Thus  while  the  faces  and 
figures  are  sufficiently  similar  to  cause  confusion,  there  is  absolutely  no  similarity  in 
the  finger  prints. 


already  a  prisoner  in  the  same  institution,  having  been  committed  to  a  life 
sentence  on  September  9,  1901,  for  the  crime  of  murder.  That  is,  the  card 
found  was  that  of  a  different  man,  still  within  the  walls  of  that  very  prison, 
yet  of  the  same  name,  the  same  facial  expression,  and  practically  the  same 
Bertillon  measurements  as  the  newcomer!  It  then  dawned  on  all  present 
that  there  were  two  Will  Wests,  and  that  here  was  a  case  of  the  most  re- 
remarkable  resemblance  of  two  unrelated  persons  on  record;  since  neither 
photographs  nor  the  Bertillon  measurements  were  of  any  avail  in  estab- 


Sight  Recognition  33 


lishing  the  identity  of  these  two  men.  The  clerk  writes  that,  with  their 
hats  on,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  tell  these  men  apart.* 

This  case,  where  so  close  a  resemblance  exists  between  two  individuals 
not  related,  is,  of  course,  unique,  but  an  occasional  close  similarity  between 
twins,  even  to  the  point  of  frequent  confusion  of  the  two,  is  known  to  every- 
body. 

In  the  opinion  of  biologists,  and  resting  upon  direct  observation,  as 
well  as  experiments  upon  lower  animals,  there  are  two  distinct  classes  of 
human  twins,  fraternal  and  duplicate,  the  distinction  between  which,  out- 
wardly manifested  by  the  degree  of  resemblance,  rests  upon  a  fundamental 
difference  in  their  origin.  Normally  every  individual  animal,  man  in- 
cluded, arises  from  a  single  microscopic  cell  (the  "egg,"  or  ovum),  de- 
veloped in  the  ovary  of  the  female  (mother),  and  fertilized  by  a  single 
sperm  cell  secreted  by  the  male  (father).  It  is  also  probable,  although 
actual  material  proof  is  wanting,  that  the  fertilized  egg  contains  potenti- 
ally all  of  the  inherited  qualities  that  come  out  in  the  adult,  and  thus  that 
a  given  combination  of  egg  and  sperm  can  produce  one  sort,  and  only  one 
sort,  of  an  individual.  Many  mammals  develop  normally  at  one  time  a 
number  of  different  ova,  but,  as  these  are  fertilized  each  with  a  separate 
sperm,  and  as  no  two  eggs  and  no  two  sperms  contain  exactly  the  same  in- 
heritable qualities,  every  fertilized  egg  differs  from  the  rest,  and  results  in  a 
special  individual,  unlike  all  his  brothers  and  sisters.  Some  other  mam- 
mals, principally  the  larger  ones,  like  the  mare,  the  cow,  and  the  elephant, 
usually  ripen  a  single  egg  at  a  time,  and  thus  produce  a  single  offspring  at 
each  birth,  more  or  less  unlike  the  rest  of  the  family.  Occasionally,  how- 
ever, two,  or  even  more  separate  ova,  will  ripen  simultaneously,  as  is  the 
rule  among  smaller  mammals,  and  these,  fertilized  by  separate  sperm  cells, 
are  just  as  unlike  as  though  they  had  been  born  at  different  times.  These 
are  twins,  because  born  at  the  same  time,  but  they  are  of  the  fraternal  (or 
brother  and  sister)  type,  and  no  nearer  related  than  are  brothers  and  sisters 
of  different  births,  and  with  the  same  two  parents.  They  may  be  of  the 
same,  or  of  opposite,  sex,  with  50  per  cent  chance  either  way;  they  may 
resemble  each  other,  just  as  two  single  children  of  the  same  family  may 
also;  and  again  they  are  just  as  likely  to  be  very  unlike  in  every  way.  On 

*While  the  apparent  identity  of  these  two  men  may  be  seen  from  the  two  photo- 
graphs here  reproduced,  the  finger  prints  are  as  distinct  as  in  any  two  chance  individuals. 
This  is  seen  from  the  prints  of  the  two  left  index  fingers,  shown  in  Figure  7.  The  Ber- 
tillon  measurements,  stated  in  the  text  to  be  practically  identical,  are  the  following, 
taken  from  the  identification  cards  of  the  United  States  Penitentiary  at  Leavenworth, 
Kansas. 

Will  West  19.7,  15.8,  12.3,  28.2,  50.2,  1.78.5,  9.7,  91.3,  1.87.0,  6.6,  14.8 
William  West  19.8,  15.9,  12.2,  27.5,  50.3,  1.77.5,  9.6,  91.3,  1.88.0,  6,6,  14.8 

These  might  easily  have  been  taken  from  the  same  man  at  two  different  times, 
or  by  two  different  operators. 


34 


Personal  Identification 


the  other  hand,  it  is  also  possible,  although  the  causes  and  details  of  the 
process  are  not  fully  known,  that  a  single  fertilized  egg,  containing  the 
hereditary  material  sufficient  to  determine  the  traits  of  a  single  individual, 
may  separate  into  two  distinct  and  separate  embryos,  each  of  which 
develops  from  that  point  on,  as  if  it  were  a  normal  one,  and  the  result 
is  two  separate  individuals  made  out  of  the  same  hereditary  material,  and 
naturally  duplicates.  These  twins  are  of  the  type  known  as  identical  or 
duplicate,  and  are  biologically  more  nearly  and  intimately  related  than 
any  other  individuals  can  be.  They  are  always  of  the  same  sex;  both 
boys  or  both  girls,  and  during  their  intra-uterine  development  they  are 


FIGURE  8.  Twin  daughters  of  Mrs.  B.  Hill  of  Southsea,  England;  called 
the  "Virol  Twins,"  as  the  photographs  of  these  little  girls  were  extensively 
used  in  advertising  an  English  infant  food  of  that  name.  This  picture,  in  ad- 
vertisement form,  was  first  sent  the  authors  several  years  ago  by  Prof.  John 
Beard  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  but  more  recently  original  photographs 
were  sent  them  directly  from  the  Virol  Co.,  Ltd.,  with  full  permission  to  repro- 
duce here.  Their  courtesy  is  hereby  acknowledged. 

more  intimately  associated  than  are  twins  of  the  other  type,  being  wrapped 
within  the  same  fetal  covering,  the  chorion.  This  fact  has  given  them  still 
another  name,  that  of  monochorial  twins,  which  emphasizes  the  fact  of 
their  being  included  within  a  single  chorion. 

Twins  of  this  type  have  been  experimentally  produced  in  quantity 
from  single  eggs  in  certain  of  the  lower  marine  creatures,  such  as  sea- 
urchins,  and  star-fish,  whose  eggs,  floating  free  in  the  water,  are  especially 


Sight  Recognition  35 


favorable  to  experiment  with,  but  with  such  animals  as  the  mammals, 
where  the  early  stages  of  the  development  take  place  within  the  body  of 
the  parent,  such  direct  experimentation  is  thus  far  impossible;  yet,  as  we 
are  dealing  with  principles  that  in  other  respects  have  been  shown  to  be  of 
universal  application,  it  is  certainly  not  too  much  to  claim  that,  where  we 
find  in  nature  results  in  every  respect  similar  to  what  we  may  produce 
experimentally,  the  conditions  and  causes  must  be  similar  also. 

We  have  then,  presumably,  in  a  pair  of  duplicate  human  twins,  two  in- 


FIGURE  9.  A  set  of  triplets  born  in  Athol,  Mass.,  in 
the  '40's  of  the  last  century.  This  photograph  was  taken 
in  the  early  '60's.  These  girls  were  named  in  order,  from 
left  to  right,  Mary,  Maria,  and  Mahala.  All  three  mar- 
ried and  bore  children.  Two  of  them  died  of  cancer. 

dividuals  made  of  the  same  hereditary  material,  minute  particles  of  the 
germ  cells  which,  under  usual  conditions,  would  have  handed  on  to  a  single 
individual  a  certain  combination  of  the  qualities  possessed  by  the  two 
parents.  By  a  complete  separation  of  this  material  at  almost  the  beginning 
of  development  two  embryos  are  formed  instead  of  one,  and  the  two  neces- 
sarily develop  in  exactly  the  same  way,  in  exact  parallel  course,  thus 
eventually  producing  two  identical  individuals  capable  of  causing  much 
confusion,  at  first  in  the  nursery,  where  they  are  sometimes  hopelessly 
mixed  up,  and  later  in  active  life.  (Figure  8.) 


36  Personal  Identification 


In  rare  instances,  too,  there  are  born,  not  merely  two  duplicates,  but 
three  that  are  identical,  although  in  most  cases  of  triplets  there  is  a  single 
pair  of  duplicates  and  a  fraternal  member,  which  may  be  of  the  same  sex 
as  the  two  others  or  not.  It  is  also  possible  to  have  a  set  of  triplets,  all 
fraternal  and  distinct  in  appearance,  which  forms  a  case  parallel  to  the 
usual  condition  among  dogs  and  cats,  with  several  individuals  in  a  litter. 

A  good  case  of  "  identical "  triplets,  who  lived  in  western  Massachu- 
setts during  the  nineteenth  century,  is  here  presented  as  photographed 
in  the  '60's.  (Figure  9.)  The  severity  of  the  fashions  of  the  day  con- 
cealed much  of  the  youthful  and  spontaneous,  yet  those  who  remember 
these  three  young  ladies,  in  order,  Mary,  Maria,  and  Mahala,  describe 
them  as  most  attractive,  piquant  and  lively,  and  as  taking  a  mischievous 
pleasure  in  deceiving  their  associates  as  to  their  identity. 

It  was  related  of  them  while  still  in  the  nursery  that  one  of  them  was 
found  complaining  that  she  had  been  given  three  baths  that  morning, 
while  the  other  two  were  in  high  spirits  at  their  unexpected  exemption;  a 
story  which  strongly  emphasizes  the  bodily  similarity  of  the  three  chil- 
dren. At  first  glance  the  one  on  the  observer's  right,  Mahala,  looks  a  bit 
unlike  the  two  others,  but  it  will  be  seen  on  closer  inspection  that  she  has 
neglected  to  put  in  her  earrings.  The  neckwear  differs  also  a  little,  prob- 
ably intentionally,  to  aid  their  friends  in  distinguishing  them. 

If,  now,  having  considered  the  problem  of  different  individuals  who 
look  alike,  we  turn  to  the  well-known  phenomenon  of  the  same  man's 
capacity  for  looking  different  at  different  times,  we  find  another  element  of 
difficulty  in  the  problem  of  really  identifying  a  man  at  sight.  We  are  all 
familiar  with  the  profound  changes  that  take  place  in  boys  and  girls  during 
adolescence,  especially  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  eighteen;  it  is  also 
true  to  a  lesser  extent  that  people  change  during  middle  life,  although  the 
changes  are  here  slow  and  less  marked.  The  advent  of  old  age  again  pro- 
duces changes,  sometimes  very  striking.  Again,  the  influence  of  external 
circumstances,  such  as,  on  the  one  hand,  a  hard  life,  a  bitter  experience,  or 
a  series  of  misfortunes,  and,  on  the  other,  continued  prosperity,  a  tranquil 
life,  free  from  excitement  and  without  care,  produce  profound  modifi- 
cations of  the  external  appearance  within  a  few  years,  so  that  after  an 
interval  intimate  associates  may  become  mutually  unrecognizable.  With 
men,  a  change  in  wearing  the  beard,  a  change  that  may  be  effected  by  a 
razor  in  a  few  minutes,  may  produce  a  startling  alteration  in  the  appear- 
ance; and  in  women  almost  as  marked  a  modification  may  be  effected  by 
the  coiffure  or  the  style  of  dress.  Thus  a  photograph  of  a  person  taken  ten 
years  ago  sometimes  is  of  little  value  in  recognition,  and  when  a  person 
attempts  voluntarily  to  modify  his  appearance  in  order  to  escape  recognition 
he  can  add  greatly  to  a  problem  by  no  means  an  easy  one  at  best.  The 
profound  difference  that  may  exist  in  two  photographs  of  the  same  in- 


Sight  Recognition 


37 


dividual,  although  with  a  short  interval  between  them,  is  shown  in  Figure 
10,  where  probably  there  was  conscious  effort  employed  to  emphasize  the 
difference.  As  in  Figure  4,  a  single  finger  print  is  shown  with  each  photo- 
graph, the  pattern  of  the  left  middle  finger.  The  photograph  and  print 
on  the  left  were  taken  in  Toronto,  in  November,  1908;  those  upon  the 
right  in  Old  Town,  Maine,  in  December,  1909. 

In  spite  of  the  almost  insurmountable  difficulties  in  the  way,  however, 
sight  recognition  is  frequently  the  only  means  available  for  the  indenti- 


FIGURE  10.  Two  photographs  of  Frank  Murray,  the  one  on  the  left, 
taken  in  Toronto,  Can.,  in  November,  1908;  the  other  in  Old  Town,  Me.,  in 
December,  1909,  a  year  apart.  The  two  would  hardly  be  taken  for  the  same 
man,  but  the  prints  of  the  left  middle  finger,  taken  at  the  same  two  times  as 
the  photographs,  show  the  complete  identity. 

fication  of  a  criminal,  although  seen  but  imperfectly,  and  then  under  the 
influence  of  great  mental  excitement.  Is  it  strange,  then,  that  cases  of 
mistaken  identity  are  alarmingly  frequent,  and  that  criminal  history  is 
full  of  cases  in  which,  by  relying  upon  such  uncertain  testimony,  perfectly 
innocent  men  have  been  compelled  to  serve  long  terms  of  imprisonment, 
or  to  submit  even  to  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law.  There  is  too  much 
ground  for  fear  that  many  mistakes  have  occurred  in  the  lynching  of 


38  Personal  Identification 


negroes,  where  the  excitement  of  the  occasion,  the  blind  rage  developed 
by  the  circumstances  of  a  revolting  crime,  the  haste  and  evasion  required 
in  order  to  consummate  the  execution,  and,  not  the  least,  the  fatal  resem- 
blance which  negroes  often  have  to  one  another  in  the  eyes  of  white  men, 
all  have  conspired  to  foster  mistakes  and  to  condemn  innocent  and  well- 
intentioned  men  to  an  excruciating  and  ignominious  death. 

The  following  instances,  taken  from  the  notebook  of  one  of  the  au- 
thors, will  be  found  suggestive  in  the  matter  of  the  reliability  of  the  average 
witness  in  matters  of  sight  recognition : 

Two  young  men  were  in  the  Dover  Police  Court  for  being  disorderly 
on  a  train  coming  from  Portsmouth  to  Dover  about  nine  in  the  evening 
of  the  day  before.  Both  were  identified  as  the  men  in  question  by  the 

conductor  of  the  train  and  by  Dr. ,  a  former  Dover  physician,  and 

both  witnesses  had  had  eleven  miles  in  a  well-lighted  train  during  which  to 
fix  the  faces  on  their  minds.  The  two  were  arrested  upon  the  station  plat- 
form at  Dover,  immediately  after  the  arrival  of  the  train.  Yet  upon  ex- 
amination, the  police  found  that  one  of  the  young  men  under  arrest  could 
prove  a  complete  alibi.  He  had  not  been  upon  the  tram  at  all,  but  had 
gone  to  the  railroad  station  in  order  to  take  the  train  for  Lawrence,  Massa- 
chusetts. Both  witnesses  were  thus  absolutely  mistaken  in  the  identity 
of  one  of  the  culprits,  even  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  so 
that  the  Associate  Judge  who  presided  at  the  trial  said,  "How  is  that  for 
identification?  Suppose  a  man's  life  depended  upon  it?" 

The  other  case  was  that  of  a  young  man  named  P ,  who  went  to 

the  livery  stable  of  John  S -,  in  Rochester,  New  Hampshire,  and  hired 

a  horse  and  carriage,  which  he  never  returned.  A  very  poor  picture  of 

P was  obtained,  and  handbills  were  printed  and  sent  broadcast. 

Among  other  descriptive  remarks  it  was  stated  that  P —  -  was  possessed 
of  considerable  musical  ability,  and  had  been  employed  as  piano  player 
in  a  roadhouse  out  in  the  country.  A  few  days  after  this  the  author,  who 
had  charge  of  the  case,  was  called  to  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  and 
was  told  by  the  City  Marshal  that  there  was  someone  in  a  certain  cell  that 
he  (Wentworth)  wanted  to  see.  The  prisoner  answered  the  description  of 
P—  —  exactly,  except  in  the  eye  color,  which  was  brown  instead  of  blue, 
the  color  given  by  the  livery  stable  keeper.  When  arrested  this  man  was 
playing  a  piano  in  a  disreputable  resort;  he  had  considerable  musical 
ability,  combed  his  hair  in  the  way  described,  and  so  on.  Mr.  S —  — ,  the 
liveryman,  came  on  from  Rochester,  and  positively  identified  the  prisoner 
as  P—  — ,  at  which  the  prisoner  turned  so  white  that  it  was  feared 

he  would  faint.  S kept  repeating,  " That's  the  fellow,  that's  the  fellow; 

you  have  got  the  right  one."  In  spite  of  all  this  the  friends  of  the  real 

P said  that  the  prisoner  was  surely  not  he,  and  they  were  right,  for 

P was  found  later  in  New  York  State,  and  the  horse  was  recovered 


Sight  Recognition  39 


by  the  aid  of  a  sister  of  P .  Here  the  circumstances  were  ideal  for  a 

true  identification.  S had  the  chance  of  looking  at  P —  — ,  during 

the  ten  minutes  or  more  necessary  to  get  the  carriage  ready;  he  was 
wholly  sober  during  that  time;  it  was  in  broad  daylight,  and  there  was 
no  state  of  excitement  or  fear. 

As  further  illustrations  of  the  danger  of  relying  upon  sight  recognition 
and  the  unreliability  of  even  the  best  of  witnesses  under  ideal  conditions,  we 
may  cite  a  number  of  recent  cases,  in  which  sight  recognition  alone  would 
have  resulted  in  the  punishment  of  innocent  victims. 

On  February  3,  1908,  the  postoffice  safe  at  Salisbury,  Massachusetts, 
was  robbed.  January  10,  1910,  a  man  named  M —  -  was  put  on  trial 
for  the  crime,  and  positively  identified  by  witnesses.  At  the  trial  Lieut. 
O.  P.  Perrill  of  the  receiving  ship  Wabash  testified  that  M —  -  was  a 
prisoner  on  board  his  ship  from  January  24  to  February  18,  1908,  and  could 
not  possibly  have  been  at  Salisbury  the  night  of  the  robbery. 

On  November  6,  1909,  a  safe  belonging  to  Schuyler  Rayner,  of  Flo- 
rence, New  Jersey,  was  robbed  by  a  masked  man,  who  nailed  the  aged 
housekeeper  into  a  room  and  escaped.  One  H —  -  was  identified  by  the 
housekeeper  as  the  robber;  a  clergyman  also  testified  that  he  had  seen 

said  H about  the  premises.  Upon  this  testimony  H —  —  was  arrested, 

but  released  from  jail  under  heavy  bail.  A  short  time  later  one  Joseph 

E ,  arrested  in  Chicago,  confessed  to  the  Florence  robbery,  and 

restored  the  money  taken. 

On  May  4,  1908,  Nelson  F.  R was  tried  in  the  United  States  and 

State  Courts  in  Chicago  for  forgery  and  swindling.  He  was  positively 
identified  by  thirty  men,  including  a  handwriting  expert,  and  a  patent 
attorney  from  Washington,  who  swore  that  on  a  certain  day  R —  -  had 

given  him  a  forged  check;  yet,  upon  the  day  in  question  R was  proven 

to  have  been  in  jail  in  Chicago. 

In  Canton,  Ohio,  one  Maurice  S ,  who  had  already  served  six 

months  in  jail  for  robbing  a  cigar  stand,  was  released  upon  the  confession 
of  a  brother,  who  stated  that  it  was  himself,  and  not  Maurice,  who  com- 
mitted the  robbery.  In  this  case  there  was  a  strong  resemblance  between 
the  two  brothers,  yet  the  identification  of  Maurice  had  been  legally  com- 
plete and  positive,  as  declared  by  reputable  witnesses,  resting  their  claims 
upon  sight  recognition. 

The  cases  thus  far  cited  include  only  those  in  which  an  innocent  man 
has  been  wrongly  identified  as  the  criminal,  yet  the  opposite  is  also  possible, 
the  non-recognition  of  the  criminal  even  by  the  victim.  On  the  13th  of 
July,  1914,  two  little  girls,  E.,  aged  9,  and  F.,  aged  11,  were  assaulted  by 
a  man,  dressed  in  a  blue  suit  and  cap,  no  vest,  and  a  light  shirt.  The  older 
girl  escaped,  but  the  younger  was  carried  off,  abused,  and  finally  tied  to 
a  small  hemlock  tree,  and  left  in  the  woods  to  die.  She  managed  to  free 


40  Personal  Identification 


herself,  and  wandered  until  she  came  to  a  house,  from  which  a  telephone 
call  was  sent,  through  which  the  criminal  was  caught.  Within  two  and 
a  half  hours  after  the  assault  the  man  was  brought  before  both  little  girls, 
and  both  said  that  he  was  not  the  man,  although  the  fellow  confessed  48 
hours  later.  Meanwhile,  when  still  at  large  the  man  had  replaced  his 
light  shirt  for  a  black  one,  and  he  also  appeared  to  be  that  kind  of  a  person 
whose  hair  is  ordinarily  straight,  but  crinkles  into  fine  curls  when  moist 
from  perspiration,  and  these  differences  were  sufficient  to  cause  both  little 
girls  to  fail  in  their  recognition  of  him. 

Such  cases  might  be  indefinitely  multiplied,  each  dealing  with  reliable 
witnesses,  generally  those  who  made  their  observations  under  favorable 
conditions,  and  resulting  either  in  the  punishment  of  the  innocent,  or  the 
escape  of  the  guilty.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  while  these  cases 
were  selected  because  the  truth  eventually  came  out,  there  are  countless 
others  where  it  never  does,  and  there  are  doubtless  now  behind  the  bars, 
deprived  of  their  liberty  and  undergoing  unmerited  disgrace  and  punish- 
ment, many  innocent  men,  convicted  upon  the  uncertain  testimony  of 
sight  recognition. 

In  view,  then,  of  the  facts  presented  in  this  chapter:  first,  the  extra- 
ordinary resemblance  possible  between  two  individuals;  second,  the  great 
amount  of  change  in  appearance  of  which  a  single  individual  is  capable; 
third,  the  known  unreliability  of  eyes,  memory,  and  judgment  under  the 
influence  of  excitement,  fear,  or  other  mental  emotion;  and  fourth,  the 
numerous  instances  in  which  a  sentence  based  upon  sight  recognition  has 
proven  erroneous  and  has  worked  the  greatest  injustice  upon  the  innocent; 
is  it  not  our  duty  to  employ  sight  recognition  as  contributory  evidence 
merely,  and  to  seek  for  better  and  surer  methods  of  effecting  a  true  identi- 
fication? The  outcome  of  this  inquiry  is  plainly  and  irrefutably  this: 
Sight  Recognition  is  not  Identification. 


CHAPTER  III 

IDENTIFICATION    BY   MOLES,    BIRTHMARKS,    SCARS,    TATTOOING,    AND     OTHER 
MARKS  UPON  THE  SURFACE  OF  THE  BODY 

"Viola:    My  father  had  a  mole  upon  his  brow. 

Sebastian:  And  so  had  mine" —  Twelfth  Night,  Act  V;  Scene  1. 

ALL  civilized  literature,  reaching  back  into  a  dim  antiquity,  and 
extending  forward  to  the  modern  novel  or  light  opera,  is  sprinkled 
here  and  there  with  instances  where  a  positive  identification  is 
made  by  means  of  some  individual  peculiarity  of  the  skin  surface.  The 
identity  of  Ulysses,  the  hero  of  the  Homeric  poem  of  the  Odyssey,  was 
disclosed  to  his  old  servant,  Eumeces,  when  he  returned  to  his  home  dis- 
guised as  a  beggar.  While  bathing  the  stranger's  feet,  according  to  the 
usages  of  hospitality  at  the  time,  Eumeces  discovered  the  scar  left  by  a 
boar's  tusk  in  an  early  hunting  adventure  in  which  both  had  participated 
in  their  youth,  and  wept  for  joy  at  the  disclosure  of  his  master's  identity. 
Identification  by  means  of  a  mole  and  a  "sign,"  the  latter  probably  a  birth- 
mark, plays  an  important  part  in  the  Arabian  Nights'  tale  of  Hassan  of 
Bassora  and  the  king's  daughter  of  the  Jinn  (807th  night),  where  Hassan 
describes  his  lost  wife  to  the  old  woman  Shewahi,  that  she  may  find  her; 
and  in  a  tale  of  Boccaccio  (2d  day,  9th  tale)  Ambrosius,  on  a  wager  with 
Bernadft  Lancellino,  enters  the  chamber  of  the  wife  of  the  latter  at  night, 
and  observes  her  as  she  lies  asleep.  The  plot  hinges  upon  the  description 
of  a  mole  upon  her  breast,  as  a  proof  of  her  infidelity.  Precisely  the  same 
tale  is  told  by  Shakespeare  in  "Cymbeline,"  who  puts  this  old  tale  in  a 
new  setting,  and  places  the  identification  in  Britain,  instead  of  Italy. 
That  Shakespeare  was  fond  of  the  mole  motive  is  shown  by  a  second  use 
of  it  in  the  quotation  at  the  head  of  this  chapter. 

One  more  illustration  from  medieval  literature  is  interesting  because 
of  the  minute  details  given.  It  is  from  the  old  Italian  novelist  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  Matteo  Bandello,  and  is  found  in  his  tale  entitled  "Ligur- 
ina,  having  been  carried  off  at  the  sack  of  Genoa,  is  long  after  recognized 
by  her  kinsfolk  and  put  in  a  nunnery"  (Part  II,  3d  story,  Paine's  transla- 
tion). The  incident  is  as  follows:  "For  all  that  she  said  there  was  none 
that  knew  her;  but  her  mother,  remembering  her  of  a  mole  which  Ligur- 
ina  had  near  the  navel,  with  seven  or  eight  little  hairs  black  as  quenched 
coal,  said,  'If  this  be  our  daughter  I  shall  soon  recognize  her,  for  that  she 
hath  a  token  which  cannot  lie!'  Then  .  .  .  she  went  up  to  Ligurina,  with 

41 


42  Personal  Identification 


eyes  full  of  tears,  and,  unlacing  her  gown,  to  which  she  fully  consented, 
saw  the  mole,  as  she  had  seen  it  a  thousand  times  before,  and  viewing 
her  more  closely,  knew  her  for  certain  to  be  that  daughter  whom  she  had 
lost  at  the  sack  of  Genoa." 

In  police  descriptions  such  bodily  marks  have  always  found  a  place, 
but  here  the  untrained  official  meets  with  numerous  difficulties.  Without 
technical  knowledge  he  finds  himself  under  the  necessity  of  distinguishing 
between  the  various  sorts  of  skin  blemishes;  he  needs  also  to  describe, 
or  to  understand  when  described,  definite  locations  upon  the  body,  accu- 
rate within  an  inch  or  so.  The  proper  terms  for  expressing  location, 
known  to  physicians  and  anatomists  all  over  the  world,  and  employed  by 
all  civilized  languages  under  slightly  different  forms,  are  naturally  unknown 
to  him,  and  he  composes  phrases  as  best  he  can,  liable  to  be  misunderstood 
by  his  colleagues  and  scientists  alike.  A  good  illustration  of  this  is  found 
in  the  frequent  newspaper  accounts  of  minor  injuries,  especially  those 
involving  the  hand  and  fingers,  and  in  which  terms  like  "last  joint," 
"third  joint,"  "fourth  finger"  and  the  like  constantly  occur,  yet  without  a 
clue  as  to  which  end  of  the  finger  the  counting  began,  or  whether  the  thumb 
was  or  was  not  included  in  the  finger  count.  Even  in  a  good  average 
description,  given  out  recently  from  a  state  penitentiary,  we  find  the  fol- 
lowing, which  may  be  very  easily  misunderstood: 

"H  shaped  scar  1st  ph,  rear  3d  left  finger." 

Here  the  "third  finger"  may  be  either  medius  or  annularis;  the  "first 
phalanx"  may  be  either  basal  or  terminal.  The  term  "rear,"  an  untech- 
nical  expression,  seldom  used,  is  found,  by  referring  to  other  reports  from 
the  same  institution,  to  be  used  as  opposed  to  "front,"  signifying  respec- 
tively dorsal  and  palmar  (ventral).  An  exact  expression  for  this,  understood 
equally  well  by  the  police  of  Germany,  France,  or  Italy,  and  without  the 
possibility  of  two  interpretations,  would  be,  with  the  order  changed,  so  as 
to  put  the  more  comprehensive  terms  first: 

H-shaped  scar  1ft.  med.  has.  ph.  dors. 

Into  this  chaotic  condition  of  things,  where  the  police  of  all  countries, 
ignoring  the  proper  terms  used  the  world  over  by  physicians  and  scientists, 
used  any  phrases  that  occurred  to  them  at  the  time,  and  where  also  different 
institutions  developed  each  its  own  usages,  came  Alphonse  Bertillon, 
who,  educated  as  an  anatomist  and  anthropologist,  brought  his  scientific 
mind  and  training  to  bear  upon  the  matter  of  accurate  description  of  indi- 
vidual bodies.  Aside  from  his  method  of  bodily  measurements,  his  most 
distinctive  contribution,  his  work  embraced  many  other  descriptive 
methods,  among  them  one  for  the  detailed  description  of  bodily  marks. 


Moles,  Birthmarks,  Scars,  Etc.  43 

To  simplify  the  problem  of  location  he  first  divided  the  entire  body 
into  six  regions,  to  be  referred  to  by  numbers,  as  follows  : 

I.  Left  upper  arm  and  forearm;    the  left  hand. 

II.  Right  upper  arm  and  forearm;   the  right  hand, 

III.  Face,  and  the  front  of  the  neck. 

IV.  Chest,  front  of  shoulders,  and  the  part  of  the  stomach  situated  above 

the  waistband  of  the  trousers. 

V.      The  back  of  the  neck,  and  the  back,  to  the  same  limit  as  given  in  IV. 
VI.      The  other  parts  of  the  body,  where  there  are  anomalies  to  be  noted. 

Each  of  these  parts  is  again  divided  into  definite  regions,  designated 
by  abbreviations.  Thus,  for  Parts  I  and  II,  which  are  alike  in  their  de- 
tails, the  subdivisions,  with  their  abbreviations,  are  as  follows: 

Forearm  (cubitus)       .............  cb 

Biceps  (region  of  front  of  upper  arm)    ........  bcp 

Wrist  (poignet)      ..............  pg 

Base  of  thumb       ...........      ...  bsP 

Pollex  (thumb)      ..............  P 

Index  (forefinger)        .............  I 

Medius  (middle  finger)  ...........  M 

Annularis  (ring  finger)      ............  A 

Minimus  (little  finger,  Fr.  au/iculaire)        .......  O 

Palm     .................  pm 

Finger  (digit,  Fr.  doigt)    ............  dgt 

Joint  (articulation)     .............  j 

Phalanx  (a  joint  in  the  other  sense)       ........  f 

Space  between  thumb  and  index      .........  P-I,  etc. 

The  basal  joint  of  a  finger  is  numbered  1,  the  middle  one  2,  and  the  ter- 
minal, 3. 

The  following  general  terms  are  used,  including  those  for  relative 
location,  and  direction  toward  or  from  a  definite  spot  : 


(s.  for  Lat.  sinister  =  left) 

Right  J 

(German  D  for  Lat.  Dexter  =  right) 

Anterior      ................  Ot 

Posterior     ................  -P 

Above  (superior  to)     .............  —  •" 

Below  (inferior  to)      .............  —  •»•/ 

Behind  (Fr.  arriere)    .............  ari 

Before  (Fr.  avant)        .............  avt 

Median  line      ...............  md 

Internal,  inner       ..............  t 

(Greek  letter,  iota) 

External,  outer      ..............  € 

(Greek  letter,  epsilon) 


44 


Personal  Identification 


Shapes,  used  especially  for  scars: 

Straight,  rectilinear r 

Curved c 

Oblique b 

Broken br 

Square  (Fr.  quadrat) qr 

Circular : circ 

Horizontal h 

Curved,  concavity  above  (superior) •  *— O 

Curved,  concavity  below  (inferior)        '.      ,      .      .      .      ;  '  . 

Curved,  concavity  forward  (anterior)         

Curved,  concavity  behind  (posterior) •  *i-p 

V 

For  lengths  and  distances  the  metric  system  is  used,  and  numbers 
always  refer  to  centimeters  (cm.).     Millimeters  are  given  after  the  decimal 


FIGURE  11.  Diagrams  of  an  arm  with  the  usual  types  of  surface  markings,  to  il- 
lustrate the  Bertillon  method  of  description.  Further  explanation  in  the  text.  (After 
Bertillon.) 

point;  thus,  "cic.  r  of  3.5"  is  read,  "straight  scar  of  3  centimeters  and  5 
millimeters." 

Other  abbreviations  refer  to  the  sort  of  mark,  whether  scar,  mole.,  etc. 
Thus: 

Scar  (Fr.  cicatrice) cic 

Mole  (Lat.  navus) nv 

Tattooing         tat 


# 
II. 


Moles,  Birthmarks,  Scars,  Etc.  45 

Boil  (Lat.  furunculus  Fr.  furuncle) fur 

Dimple  (Fr.  fossette)         fst 

Smallpox  (Lat.  variola) var 

Scrofula scrof 

Bertillon,  in  his  manual,*  gives  a  number  of  illustrations  of  the  use 
of  this  system,  accompanied  by  the  sketches  he  describes,  and  the  reader 
is  referred  to  this  for  details.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  present  one  or  two 
of  these,  to  render  the  description  more  complete.  Thus,  in  Figure  11 
are  given  front  views  of  a  subject's  two  forearms,  the  details  of  which  are 
thus  expressed  by  the  Bertillon  system: 

tot.  Pour    &  VIE  of  £#©5- 
ctf  |  w. 

tot  .   I  ta/VCb  of  jjj1 

MARIE  <§>  % 


/t  of 
. 
,5)   £. 


Described  in  full,  the  above  would  read  as  follows: 

Le/<  arm 

1.  Mole  at  11  centimeters  above  point  of  left  elbow,  outer  side. 

2.  Tattooing,   "Pour    la  vie,"   dimensions   9x2   centimeters,   placed 

horizontally  at  5  centimeters  below  elbow,  on  the  front  side. 

3.  Tattooing,  a  heart,  dimensions  5x5  centimeters,  shaded,  surcharg- 

ing the  name  "Marie"  placed  2  centimeters  beneath  the  preceding- 
inscription  (2). 

4.  Curved  scar,  with  the  concavity  upward,  5  centimeters  long  and  0.3 

centimeters  broad,  obliquely  placed  3  centimeters  above  the  outer 
side  of  the  left  wrist,  on  the  front  side. 

Right  arm 

1.  Scar,  perhaps  from  being  bled,  straight,  1.8  centimeters  in  length, 

placed  obliquely  on  the  inner  side,  3  centimeters  below  the  elbow,  on 
the  front  aspect  of  the  right  arm. 

2.  Scar  from  a  boil,  12  centimeters  below  right  elbow,  on  the  front,  outer 

side. 

3.  Tattooing,  an  anchor,  6x3  centimeters  in  size,  placed  6  centimeters 

below  the  right  elbow,  front  side. 

4.  Straight  scar,  3  centimeters  long,  placed  horizontally,  4  centimeters 

above  the  right  wrist,  on  the  front,  and  partly  on  the  inner,  side. 

*The  Bertillon  System  of  Identification  (Engl.  transl.),  1896,  edited  by  Maj. 
R.  W.  McClaughry,  late  Gen.  Supt.  of  Police,  Chicago.  The  Werner  Co.,  Chicago, 
Publishers. 


46  Personal  Identification 


In  concluding  this  subject  we  present  one  further  example,  which 
we  leave  to  the  ingenuity  of  the  reader.  It  describes  the  marks  on  a 
man's  back,  the  part  uncovered  when  he  stands  with  shirt  removed  but 
with  the  trousers  retained.  It  also  is  given  in  Bertillon,  and  figured  in 
his  Plate  76,  which  may  easily  be  consulted  to  corroborate  the  reader's 
translation. 


-t*  d  &°k®.  3 

?Ytb#"ci. 

18  — ^  7°  8f  @    ie>  tb 
@  fe  '^^  ct.  *"C  /  • 


In  this  £ptf  equals  slight;  cl  equals  vertebral  column;  and  the  oft 
recurring  7°  signifies  the  point  of  the  seventh  cervical  vertebra,  or  vertebra 
prominens,  the  conspicuous  median  point  at  the  base  of  the  neck,  where 
the  collar  button  sometimes  chafes.  It  may  be  rendered  more  pronounced 
in  a  subject  if  he  bend  his  head  down. 

Although  the  difficulties  that  appear  at  first  glance  soon  disappear  as 
one  studies  this  shorthand  system  of  description,  it  still  shows  plainly 
that  it  was  primarily  a  personal  method,  such  as  one  who  has  much  note- 
taking  to  do  naturally  develops  for  himself,  rather  than  a  broad  interna- 
tional system,  of  universal  application.  In  the  English  edition  of  Bertillon 
the  system  has  been  improved  for  those  of  English  speech  by  a  proposed 
substitution  of  English  abbreviations  in  cases  where  the  French  or  Latin 
form  was  very  unlike  the  word  in  our  language.  Thus,  right  and  left 
in  place  of  the  characters  standing  for  the  initial  letters  of  the  Latin  dexter 
and  sinister;  sm  (small),  instead  of  p  (petit);  scar  instead  of  cic  (cicatrice); 
mole  instead  of  ncevus,  and  so  on.  Yet  there  is  still  room  for  a  complete 
new  system,  consisting  of  abbreviations  easily  understood  internationally, 
and  taking  into  consideration  convenience,  anatomical  accuracy,  and 
simplicity  of  application. 

The  present  practice  in  the  United  States  varies  with  the  institution, 
but  there  are  few  that  show  no  Bertillon  influence  in  the  descriptive  phrase- 
ology. In  some  cases  the  Bertillon  abbreviations,  even  those  based  on 
French  or  Latin  words  without  English  equivalents,  are  faithfully  adhered 
to,  although  nv  or  naevus,  has  scarcely  obtained  a  foothold.  Inches,  too, 
are  often  preferred  to  centimeters,  and  in  some  instances  both  exist  in  the 
same  description.  The  words  front  and  rear,  used  for  the  side  presented, 
when  the  subject  is  standing  before  the  examiner,  are  almost  universal, 


Moles,  Birthmarks,  Scars,  Etc.  47 

but  are  to  be  objected  to  as  inapplicable,  save  in  one  position  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  of  no  significance  in  describing  a  body.  For  these  and  all  such 
terms  there  should  ultimately  be  substituted  terms  applying  to  definite 
body  regions,  irrespective  of  position  assumed.  Thus,  palmar,  with  refer- 
ence to  a  hand,  means  the  palm  side,  and  can  mean  nothing  else;  dorsal 
means  the  back,  or  the  side  corresponding  to  the  back;  ventral  means  the 
stomach,  or  the  stomach  side  of  an  arm  or  leg,  and  so  on.  Two  very 
convenient  terms  referring  to  a  position  on  a  limb  (arm,  leg,  finger)  are 
proximal  and  distal,  toward  the  body  and  toward  the  tip  respectively,  and 
it  removes  all  ambiguity  to  call  the  three  finger  joints  the  basal,  middle,  and 
end  (or  terminal)  instead  of  numbering  them. 

That  our  descriptive  nomenclature  needs  a  thorough  revision,  which 
will  render  possible  the  use  of  the  same  method  everywhere,  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  examples,  taken  at  random  from  various  institutions, 
among  them  some  of  the  largest  and  best  equipped. 

A.  An  institution  that  follows  Bertillon  in  large  part. 

Case  1.     I.     Cic.  of  1.3  @  2nd.  f  index  anterior  and  inner. 

II.  — 

III.     Mole  of  5  x  5  neck  posterior  @  1  from  median  line. 
Cic.  of  5  x  7   @  left  thigh  front  and  inner. 
Frontal  and  occipital  baldness.     Wears  a  wig. 

Case  2.     I.     Cic  curved  concavity  inferior  of  4  @  3rd.  f  middle  finger  front 

and  inner. 
TT    — —  —  —        - 

III.  Cic  recti  of  3  oblique  inner  right  brow  inner. 
Cic  of  burn  left  foot. 

Mole  round  of  1  @  pt.  of  right  shoulder. 

B.  An  institution  that  simply  abbreviates,  not  always  using  the 
same  letters  for  the  same  word,  and  again  writing  out  the  word  in  full. 

Case  1.         I.     Scr  hori  2c  below  wrt  frt. 
II.     Mole  7c  abv  wrt  out. 

Case  2.         I.     Scr  vac  H  x  l£  8  abv  elb  out;   tatt  eagle  and  flag,  11  x  10 
6  bel  elbo  frt; 

II.     Tatt  woman,  13  x  5?  4  belo  elbo  frt;  scr  irreg  4x4  abv  elbo 

in;    arm   crooked   at   elbo. 

III.  Scr  obi  l£c  on  R  forehead  4c  from  M  line  3c  abv  R  eye;  scr 
obi  extending  fro  bridge  of  nose  to  in  cor  R  eye;  both 
eyes  strabismus  divergent. 

C.  This  institution  seems  to  use  the  Bertillon  order  in  describing  the 
parts  of  the  body,  i.  e.,  first  the  left  arm,  then  the  right,  then  the  face,  and 


48  Personal  Identification 


so  on,  but  does  not  indicate  the  classification,  and  sometimes  confuses  the 
regions.  Only  a  few  abbreviations  are  used. 

Case  1.  Round  sc  of  lj  in  [inches?]  diam  3  above  wrist,  R  f  forearm  rear; 
mole  in  right  eye  row;  mole  3  to  rear  of  right  eye  on- temple; 
birthmark  3  long  3  wide  on  back  of  neck;  mole  on  left  2  in 
front  left  tragus;  diag scon  neck  2  below  lobe  left  ear;  mole  on 
left  cheek  7  in  front  of  lobe  left  ear;  blue  mark  1  long  1  wide 
upper  lip  under  left  nostril. 

Here  probably  the  numbers  mean  centimeters,  but  the  first,  followed  by 
the  abbreviation  "in,"  seems  to  signify  inches.  Sometimes,  in  descrip- 
tions from  this  same  institution,  the  word  "inch"  appears  written  in  full; 
also  the  numbers  used  without  designation  would  sometimes  be  too  long 
for  the  place  in  which  they  are  located  unless  they  were  centimeters. 

D.  An  institution  that  uses  inches  and  centimeters  side  by  side,  both 
designated,  also  independent  in  abbreviating. 

Case  1.  Obi.  sc.  J  "  long  on  forehead  2c  to  R  of  M  2c  above  eyebrow.  Ir- 
reg  sc  \"  Ig  in  root  of  nose.  Obi  sc  f "  Ig  on  R  cheek  bone. 

Case  2.  Faint  obi  scar  15"  Ig  otr  R  elbow;  Mole  on  top  of  L  shoulder. 
Two  moles  3c  apart  R  side  of  neck  3c  and  6c  below  lobe.  Mole 
on  front  of  rim  of  L  ear. 

E.  An  institution  that  writes  descriptions  out  in  full,  without  ab- 
breviations, but  does  not  locate  the  details  very  carefully. 

Case  1.  Scar  at  base  of  thumb  front.  Scar  above  outer  corner  left  eye. 
Right  side  of  face  covered  with  numerous  small  moles.  Other 
small  moles  on  other  portions  of  body. 

These  and  many  other  forms  of  description  are  now  in  use,  and  the 
police  are  supposed  on  occasion  to  read  them  all.  They  must  know  that 
"cic.  rect"  and  "straight  scar"  are  one  and  the  same  thing;  they  must 
look  out  for  such  unexpected  abbreviations  as  "otr"  and  "bel,"  and  know 
that  "f "  stands  for  phalanx,  and  not  finger.  They  must  become  familiar 
with  inches  and  centimeters  or  with  two  or  three  kinds  of  abbreviation  for 
these  in  the  same  description ;  yet  may  fail  to  discover  the  advantage  as 
time-savers  of  such  abbreviations  as  "elbo,"  "fro,"  or  "scr."  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  present  conditions  will  soon  be  improved,  and  that  some 
standard  be  set  for  writing  descriptions  of  bodily  marks  for  purposes  of 
identification. 

The  primitive  use  of  tattooing  and  scarifying  the  body  seems  to  be,  as 
referred  to  above,  a  system  of  labeling  an  individual,  indicating  at  least 
the  tribe  to  which  he  belongs.  Such  a  system  Thomas  Hariot,  an  early 


Moles,  Birthmarks,  Scars,  Etc.  49 

traveler  in  Virginia,  found  in  full  force  among  the  aborigines  of  that  country, 
for  he  writes  in  1590,  "The  inhabitats  of  all  the  cuntrie  for  the  most  parts 
haue  marks  rased  on  their  backs,  wherby  yt  may  be  knowen  what  Princes 
subiects  they  bee,  or  of  what  place  they  have  their  originall ";  and  among 
certain  classes  of  the  most  highly  civilized  peoples  tattooing  still  survives 
in  very  nearly  its  original  use. 

The  almost  universal  tattooing  practiced  by  our  sailors  in  the  time  of 
the  old  sailing  ships,  aside  from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  fashion,  had  a  dis- 
tinctive value  in  identification,  especially  advisable  in  those  following  so 
hazardous  a  calling.  At  the  present  time,  too,  on  the  authority  of  the  As- 
sociated Press  (September  2,  1914)  there  is  a  considerable  revival  of  tattoo- 
ing among  British  soldiers,  again  with  some  identification  value.  There 
is,  however,  no  system  in  the  devices  employed,  as  would  be  the  case  if 
identification  were  the  main  purpose,  and  the  selection  of  devices  indicates 
sentiment  rather  than  utility.  "  Many  bring  their  own  designs,  such  as  a 
heart  with  the  name  of  a  girl  underneath,  or  two  hearts,  with  hands  clasped 
across,  and  the  name  of  the  girl.  'For  King  and  Country,  1914,'  tattooed 
in  colors  across  the  chest,  is  one  of  the  favorites  outside  of  the  love  designs. 
French  Tri-color  and  the  Union  Jack  entwined  has  also  been  in  demand." 

Something  similar  to  this  appeared  in  later  Rome,  but  was  under 
Government  control.  Mallory  states  that  "  In  the  period  of  the  decline  of 
Rome,  tattooing  was  extensively  practiced.  Regulative  laws  prescribed 
the  adopted  symbols  which  were  a  proof  of  enlistment  in  the  ranks  and  on 
which  the  military  oath  was  taken.  The  purpose  of  this  ordinance,  which 
continued  in  force  for  a  long  time,  was  similar  to  that  which  authorized 
the  marking  of  slaves,  since,  the  spirit  of  the  people  having  become  de- 
generated, the  army  was  composed  of  mercenaries  who,  if  they  should  run 
away,  must  be  recognized,  pursued,  and  captured.* 

Quite  aside  from  soldiers  and  sailors,  the  practice  of  tattooing,  prob- 
ably from  esthetic  or  sentimental  reasons,  is  far  more  widely  practiced  in 
the  United  States  and  Europe  than  is  generally  supposed,  as  the  customary 
concealment  of  all  parts  of  the  body  except  the  face  and  hands  renders 
observation  difficult.  This  fact  is,  however,  better  known  to  physicians, 
bath-house  attendants,  and  prison  officials,  all  of  whom  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  make  many  bodily  examinations ;  it  may  also  be  frequently  ob- 
served on  the  bathing  beach.  It  is  here  a  singular  fact,  of  interest  to 
psychologists,  that  tattooing  is  especially  popular  with  criminals  and 
prostitutes,  the  practice  thus  seeming  to  appeal  to  those  whose  mental 
and  moral  defects  put  them  more  nearly  on  a  plane  with  the  lower  human 
races. 

*Col.  Garrick  Mallery,  in  "Picture  Writing  of  the  American  Indians";  10th. 
Ann.  Rep.  Bureau  of  Ethnol.  Washington,  1888-1889,  p.  408.  This  report  includes 
much  of  interest  on  the  general  subject  of  tattooing. 


50  Personal  Identification 


This  latter  circumstance,  the  frequency  of  tattooing  among  the  crim- 
inal class,  furnishes  an  unexpected  aid  to  police  officials,  giving  assistance 
exactly  where  it  is  most  needed.  In  a  count  of  the  police  descriptions 
of  402  male  criminals  from  the  United  States,  all  convicted  of  major  crimes, 
98  of  them,  practically  one-fourth,  were  tattooed,  mostly  on  the  arms. 
The  designs  were  selected  from  a  wide  series  of  conventional  designs, 
delineated  in  combinations  of  red  and  blue,  and  executed  in  an  unvarying 
style  peculiar  to  this  form  of  art,  indicative  of  the  faithful  perpetuation 
of  tradition  among  the  tattooing  craft.  That  the  patterns  found  were 
evidently  selected  from  a  comparatively  restricted  list  shows  that  the 
tattooed  are  quite  at  the  mercy  of  the  tattooer,  being  marked  with 
the  designs  he  may  happen  to  be  able  to  do,  rather  than  with  designs  of 
any  special  significance  or  appropriateness. 

Among  the  98  descriptions  were  found  the  following  designs,  some 
subjects  exhibiting  more  than  one: 

Letters  and  Inscriptions.     Initials,  of  the  individual  himself,  of  a  friend,  of  a  sweetheart. 

Words  like  "Hope"  or  "Luck." 
Sentimental  or  Religious.     Hearts  joined,   pierced  with  arrow,   bearing  initials,   etc.; 

hands  clasped;  cross;  crucifix;   gravestone  with  inscription,  usually  "To  the  memory 

of  my  mother,"  sometimes  with  willow  tree,  church,  date,  etc. 
Patriotic.     Spread  eagle,  American  flag. 

Sporting.     Horseshoe,  riding-whip,  horse's  head,  crossed  guns. 
Amorous.     Girl,  head  of  figure;    dancing,  in  tights,  nude,  etc. 
Nautical.     Ship,  sailor,  with  whole  figure  or  head  alone,  anchor  and  chain,  fish. 
Trade  Emblems.     Anvil  and  hammer,  arm  and  hammer,  engine  with  tender. 
Miscellaneous.     Steer's  head,  skull  and  crossbones,  dagger,  emblem  of  secret  society, 

emblem  of  military  organization,  axes,  rising  sun,  flower,  gladiator,  Indian  with  bow 

and  arrow. 

Although  without  doubt  these  emblems  were  originally  devised  to 
have  some  reference  or  appropriateness  to  the  person  decorated,  there 
are  numerous  cases  where  such  is  far  from  the  case.  Nautical  emblems 
appear  on  those  unacquainted  with  the  sea;  tools  and  machines  are  be- 
stowed upon  those  unfamiliar  with  work  of  any  sort;  and  in  one  case  the 
"memory  of  mother"  inscription  is  accompanied  by  an  impossible  date, 
showing  that  the  pattern  had  been  bought,  as  it  were,  second  hand ! 

Tattoo  marks  are  of  much  practical  use  in  the  identification  of  bodies 
previously  observed  and  described,  but  they  are  not  absolutely  permanent. 
As  their  removal  is  followed  by  a  permanently  scarred  surface,  and  with 
often  some  ineradicable  traces  of  the  inscription,  it  is  customary,  in  cases 
where  concealment  of  identification  is  sought  by  the  removal,  to  put  a 
second  and  quite  different  tattoo  over  the  spot,  the  condition  expressed 
as  "surcharging."  Here  the  presence  of  a  tattoo  m  the  spot  where  one  is 
expected,  even  though  the  design  be  unlike  the  one  previously  described, 
is  a  suspicious  circumstance,  and  by  no  means  excludes  an  identification. 


Moles,  Birthmarks,  Scars,  Etc.  51 

In  police  records  of  a  tattoo  there  seems  no  better  method  than  a 
verbal  description.  The  patterns,  although  limited,  are  yet  too  varied 
to  easily  classify,  while  they  are  simple  enough  in  design  to  require  few 
words  in  describing  them.  Owing  to  the  use  of  a  few  definite  patterns  by 
a  given  tattooer,  and  also  to  the  possibility  of  changing  or  "surcharging"  a 
pattern,  the  employment  of  tattoo  marks  in  identification,  while  often 
of  assistance,  is  not  final,  and  does  not  positively  identify  a  person. 


CHAPTER  IV 

IDENTIFICATION  BY  HABITS,  GAIT,  HANDWRITING,  PREFERENCES, 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS,  VOICE,  ETC. 

"A  man  carries  his  personal  trade-mark,  not  in  his  face  only,  but  in  his 
nervous  system  and  muscles  —  giving  rise  to  characteristic  movements  and 
gait;  in  his  larynx  —  producing  an  individual  voice;  and  even  in  his  mouth, 
as  shown  by  individual  peculiarities  of  speech  and  accent.  And  the  individ- 
ual nervous  system,  by  means  of  these  characteristic  movements,  transfers 
its  peculiarities  to  inanimate  objects  that  are  the  product  of  such  movements; 
as  we  see  in  pictures,  in  carving,  in  musical  execution,  and  in  handwriting. 
No  one  has  ever  painted  quite  like  Reynolds  or  Romney;  no  one  has  ever 
played  exactly  like  Liszt  or  Paganini;  the  picture  or  the  sounds  produced  by 
them  were,  so  to  speak,  an  extension  of  the  physiognomy  of  the  artist.  And 
so  with  handwriting.  A  particular  specimen  is  the  product  of  a  particular 
set  of  motor  centers  in  an  individual  brain." — JR.  Austin  Freeman,  in  "  The 
Mystery  of  31,  New  Inn,"  p.  235.  Pull,  by  Winston,  Phila.,  1913. 

Y  •  "lHE  most  individual  part  of  any  man  is  his  brain,  and  if  it  were  ever 
possible  to  study  the  relations  and  connections  of  the  twelve  hun- 
dred million  and  more  cell  centers  of  which  it  is  composed,  and 
make  a  comparison  of  the  same  parts  in  two  separate  individuals,  the  truth 
of  this  statement  would  be  strikingly  apparent.  But  the  same  facts  may 
be  obtained  in  another  way,  within  the  reach  of  all;  not  by  searching 
among  the  minute  mazes  of  the  central  nervous  system,  but  by  observing 
the  large  results,  i.  e.,  what  the  individual  muscular  system  does  under  the 
control  of  the  brain  centers. 

The  effect  of  training  and  the  individuality  of  the  motion  as  shown 
in  the  marvelous  execution  of  a  pianist  are  phenomena  familiar  to  all. 
The  differences  in  the  action  of  the  muscles  are  here  so  individual  that  if 
two  or  more  separate  performers  render  the  same  passage  the  critic  can 
recognize  each  by  the  ear  alone.  But  in  the  same  way  all  the  muscular 
actions  of  any  individual  are  just  as  distinct,  and  to  a  large  extent  con- 
stitute the  "personality,"  as  we  call  it,  of  our  friends  and  acquaintances. 

To  some  extent  the  individual  traits  and  characters  here  treated  are 
employed  in  the  usual  form  of  police  description,  but  in  most  of  them 
nothing  is  said  concerning  these  points;  yet  how  many  times  we  notice, 
not  the  face,  but  the  gait,  the  gestures,  certain  striking  peculiarities  of 
speech,  when  the  details  of  the  face  make  but  little  impression.  After 

52 


Habits,  Gait,  Handwriting,  Etc.  53 

talking  with  a  stranger  one  can  often  remember  some  mannerism  in  glance, 
movement,  or  intonation,  while  it  is  impossible  to  recall  the  shape  of  the 
nose,  or  even  the  color  of  the  eyes. 

There  is  certainly  need  of  a  scientific  treatment  of  this  whole  matter — 
a  bringing  together  and  classifying  the  possible  traits  and  characteristic 
actions  due  to  brain  and  muscles,  in  some  ways  the  most  striking,  as  well 
as  the  most  characteristic  and  individual,  of  all  easily  observed  characters. 
A  beginning  along  this  direction  is  furnished  by  Bertillon  in  his  Manual 
(pp.  202-211),  under  the  caption,  "General  Characters  and  Sundry  In- 
formation," but  the  entire  subject,  aside  from  handwriting,  which  forms 
a  science  in  itself,  is  contained  in  but  nine  pages,  and  although  admirable 
and  suggestive,  it  is  far  from  exhaustive.  Bertillon  presents  here  seven 
headings,  of  which  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  are  of  especial  bearing  here: 
I,  The  Neck  (proportions  and  general  appearance);  II,  Inclination  of  the 
Line  of  the  Shoulders,  seen  from  in  front;  III,  The  Attitude;  IV,  General 
Demeanor;  V,  The  Voice  and  Language;  VI,  The  Habiliment  (clothing); 
and  VII,  General  Impressions  and  Presumptions  regarding  the  Social 
Status.  Under  IV,  to  take  an  example,  he  speaks  of  (1)  the  Gait,  (2)  the 
Gestures,  (3)  the  Glance,  and  (4)  Physiognomic  Mimicry,  that  is,  the  facial 
expressions,  based  upon  the  use  of  the  facial  muscles.  These  he  further 
expands  in  some  detail,  enumerating  the  usual  kinds,  and  suggesting  ad- 
jectives for  each,  which  he  evidently  intends  to  have  used  as  technical 
terms,  each  denoting  a  definite  sort,  or  degree,  of  the  trait  under  considera- 
tion. Thus,  under  (2)  the  Gait,  he  cites  the  following  varieties : 

very  slow  with  short  step  light  tripping  (Fr.  sautillante) 

very  rapid  with  long  step  heavy  sedate  (Fr.  posee) 

Then  he  enumerates  the  following  kinds  or  styles  of  the  gait  as  a 
whole,  stiff,  measured,  dandified,  gawky,  swinging,  unsteady,  and  limp- 
ing. 

Since  even  this  much  is  very  suggestive  of  the  sort  of  thing  one  is 
to  look  for,  and,  by  enumerating  some  of  the  things  to  be  looked  for,  edu- 
cates the  faculty  of  observation,  we  have  here  attempted  a  similar  analysis 
of  several  kinds  of  traits  or  characters  coming  under  the  scope  of  this 
chapter,  with  the  hope  that  it  may  stimulate  observation  and  suggest 
suitable  descriptive  words.  It  seems  likely,  however,  that  it  will  be  hardly 
possible  ever  to  use  the  descriptive  words  in  an  exact,  technical  sense, 
as  the  characters  designated  often  represent  varying  degrees  which  run 
together,  so  that  two  independent  observers  might  differ  as  to  the  exact 
degree  present.  It  is  then  to  be  understood  that,  in  presenting  this  classi- 
fied list,  nothing  dogmatic  or  final  is  attempted,  and  it  is  expected  that 
the  practical  worker  will  find  opportunity  to  expand  or  revise  to  suit 
himself. 


54  Personal  Identification 


TRAITS  AND  PECULIARITIES  DEPENDENT  UPON  THE  INDIVIDUAL 
MUSCULAR  AND  NERVOUS  SYSTEMS 

/.     Habitual  Motions. 

(a)  Connected  with  walking: 

Short  or  long  steps. 

Bending  of  knee. 

Toeing  in,  out,  straight  forward. 

Position  of  arms: 

Palms  directed  inward. 

Palms  directed  backward. 

Swinging  various  ways. 

Hands  clasped  behind  back. 

Position  of  head,  shoulders,  body  (Such  as:  erect,  round-shoul- 
dered, stooping). 
Carriage  in  general,  other  than  above  included. 

(b)  Connected  with  sitting: 

Erect,  lounging,  sitting  high,  low. 
Legs,  crossed,  straight. 
Clasping  hands  behind  head. 
Tipping  chair. 
Putting  feet  up. 
Hanging  arm  over  back. 

(c)  Connected  with  talking: 

Motionless,  without  gestures. 
Much  gesticulation. 
Shrugging  of  shoulders. 
Pounding  fist  on  table. 
Putting  hand  on  listener. 
Various  peculiar  gestures. 

Action  of  mouth,  nose,  eyebrows,  and  other  features. 
Degree   of    action    of   face,    still,    mobile,    nervous,   expression- 
grave,  smiling,  vicious,  etc. 

(d)  Connected  with  clothing: 

Hands  in  pockets. 

Thumbs  in  suspenders,  armholes  of  vest,  vest  pockets. 

Hand  thrust  into  coat. 

Playing  with  watch-chain,  rings,  buttons. 

(e)  Connected  with  eating;   table  manners: 

Peculiarities  in  holding  and  using  implements. 
Mouth  kept  open  while  chewing.     (This  phase  of  life  especially 
good  indication  of  the  social  status). 

(f)  "Habit-spasms"    (spasmodic  jerkings  and  twitchings,   St.   Vitus' 

dance) :  These  to  a  slight  degree  are  more  or  less  common,  and 
furnish  an  excellent  clue  to  an  individual,  as  they  are  practically 
involuntary,  and  very  conspicuous.  One  must  remember, 
however,  that  they  are  often  not  constant,  but  intermittent  in 
their  manifestation,  increasing  with  worry,  excitement,  or  ex- 
haustion. Slight  habit-spasms  may  affect  the  eyelids,  the  nose,, 
the  mouth,  singly;  in  a  more  extreme  case  several  parts  are  in- 
volved at  once. 


Habits,  Gait,  Handwriting,  Etc.  55, 

II.     Speech. 

(a)  General  manner  of  speaking: 

Fast  or  slow. 

Soft  or  loud. 

Speaks  little  or  much,  taciturn  or  loquacious. 

Speech  flowing,  jerky,  drawling. 

(b)  Voice: 

Quality  (clear,  husky,  rasping,  falsetto,  shrill). 
Pitch  (high,  low,  alternating,  up  and  down,  monotone). 
Degree  of  force  (loud,  soft). 

(c)  Defects  in  speech: 

Lisping  (th  for  s). 

Other  substitutions  of  sounds  (w  for  r,  th  for/). 
Stammering.* 
Stuttering.* 

Foreign  accent  (with  some  practice  the  native  language  of  the 
subject  may  usually  be  learned  from  the  accent). 

(d)  Style: 

Grammatical  or  ungrammatical. 

Cultured,   provincial,   sporting,   language  of  slums. 

Choice  of  words,  profanity. 

III.     Interests,  Tastes,  Accomplishments,  Technical  Knowledge. 

(a)  Favorite  topics  of  conversation. 

(b)  Knowledge  or  ignorance  of  certain  subjects. 

(c)  Knowledge    or    ignorance    of  certain   foreign    languages.       (This 

should  be  taken  in  connection  with  any  definite  foreign  accent.) 

(d)  Skill  in  certain  games  or  sports. 

(e)  Musical  ability;  skill  in  playing  upon  instruments. 

(f)  Artistic  ability,  and  other  professional  accomplishments. 

N.  B.  In  all  of  these  cases  that  concern  the  knowledge  or  igno- 
rance of  a  thing,  a  suspect  may  often  feign  ignorance  of  what 
he  knows,  but  can  never  claim  knowledge  of  what  he  does  not 
know,  so  long  as  he  can  be  put  to  the  test.  For  example,  if  a 
certain  suspect  is  known  to  be  an  expert  billiardist,  and  if  the 
man  detained  on  suspicion  has  also  qualified  at  that  game,  he 
may  still  be  held,  pending  further  investigation,  with  the  sus- 
picion against  him  strengthened;  but  if,  when  exposed,  he  feigns 
ignorance  or  lack  of  interest,  it  means  nothing.  In  the  case  of 

*Although  these  two  words  are  often  used  as  synonyms,  and  applied  to  various 
types  of  hesitating  utterance,  the  modern  dictionaries  (Standard,  Webster's,  Century) 
give  to  the  word  stutter,  aside  from  that  of  a  synonym  of  stammer,  a  special  meaning, 
that  of  spasmodically  repeating  the  initial  syllable,  especially  those  beginning  with 
6,  p,  t,  and  d.  Should  we,  for  the  present  purpose,  find  it  convenient  to  use  both  words 
as  technical  expressions,  it  would  be  well  to  employ  the  word  stutter  for  the  defect  of 
repetition,  and  stammer  for  the  other  defects  of  hesitation.  A  typical  stammerer,  then, 
does  not  repeat  initial  syllable,  but  stops  between  words,  and  sometimes  between  syl- 
lables, often  filling  in  the  gaps  with  a  prolonged  vocalization  like  ah-ah  or  er-er. 


56  Personal  Identification 


denying  knowledge  of  a  language,  an  unexpected  remark  in 
that  language  may  cause  him  to  betray  himself,  while  much 
will  be  indicated,  even  in  opposition  to  his  statements,  by  his 
accent,  use  of  words,  and  sentence-formation.  Bertillon,  in 
his  manual,  pp.  207-210,  analyzes,  with  considerable  care,  the 
varieties  of  accent  commonly  met  with  in  Paris.  This  labor 
might  well  be  extended. 

IV.      Handwriting. 

The  study  of  handwriting,  associated  as  it  is  with  forgeries,  anonymous 
communications,  and  documentary  evidence  of  all  sorts,  is  a  subject  of 
great  legal  importance.  In  its  commonest  legal  aspect  the  case  concerns 
a  suspected  forgery  of  some  sort,  and  the  question  asked  is,  Did  a  certain 
man  write  this?  In  the  case  of  an  anonymous  communication,  however, 
the  question  is  a  different  one,  namely,  Who  wrote  this?  and  in  this  latter 
form  seems  at  first  to  bring  up  the  question  of  personal  identity.  Here, 
however,  the  case  is  unlike  that  treated  in  this  book,  since  the  object  of 
study  is  not  the  man  himself,  or  his  remains,  but  something  done  by  the 
man;  not,  Who  is  this?  but,  Who  did  this?  At  the  same  time  such  a  case 
involves  bodily  characteristics,  those  of  the  nervous  and  muscular  systems 
that  performed  the  work,  and  is  thus  as  much  an  indication  of  an  individ- 
ual personality  as  is  a  characteristic  gesture  or  method  of  speaking.  It 
is  also  possible,  where  the  range  of  possibilities  is  not  large,  to  use  the 
handwriting  of  a  man  under  observation,  even  though  it  be  disguised, 
as  evidence  of  his  identity. 

More  than  any  other  single  gesture  or  habitual  pose,  a  man's  natural 
handwriting  is  the  product  of  what  he  has  experienced,  learned,  and  prac- 
ticed repeatedly,  mind  and  body  co-operating  in  every  stroke.  "Free, 
natural  writing  is  the  almost  unconscious  visible  expression  of  firmly 
established  muscular  habits  based  on  fixed  mental  impressions  of  certain 
forms  or  outlines.  These  muscular  habits,  as  well  as  the  mental  patterns, 
differ  in  a  marked  manner  in  different  individuals,  and  this  variation 
radically  affects  the  visible  result.  "* 

It  is  because  of  this  intimate  association  of  the  movements  made 
in  writing  with  each  individual  writer  that  a  forgery,  made  with  whatever 
care,  can  usually  be  detected  by  an  experienced  examiner.  If  an  original 
stroke  was  made  rapidly  by  one  accustomed  to  make  that  stroke,  it  can 
be  successfully  reproduced  in  no  other  way,  and  no  copyist,  whose  expe- 
riences and  training  are  also  individual,  can  make  an  exactly  similar  motion. 
But,  allowing  that  by  an  extraordinary  amount  of  skill  and  practice  a 

*Albert  S.  Osborn,  in  his  "Questioned  Documents,"  p.  106.  This  is  a  stand- 
ard work  on  the  examination  of  documents,  and  includes  an  exhaustive  treatment 
of  the  subject  of  handwriting.  It  is  published  by  the  Lawyer's  Co-operative  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  1910. 


Habits,  Gait,  Handwriting,  Etc.  57 

forger  may  succeed  fairly  well  with  the  first  stroke,  there  will  come,  in  the 
course  of  an  ordinary  signature,  a  second,  a  third,  and  even  a  fiftieth; 
and  if  he  stops  to  take  breath  between  the  strokes  in  places  where  the 
original  writer  did  not,  that,  too,  will  betray  itself  to  the  expert,  aided  by 
the  microscope  and  the  camera. 

In  short,  a  man  acquires  certain  "pen-habits"  or  "writing-habits," 
as  they  are  variously  called,  so  numerous  and  so  instinctive  that,  in  spite 
of  himself,  although  he  may  purposely  avoid  the  more  obvious  ones,  others 
will  be  sure  to  appear,  and  in  the  course  of  a  considerable  amount  of  writing, 
like  the  body  of  a  usual  letter,  such  individual  features  are  obvious  to 
all.  He  makes  a  certain  stroke  a  certain  way,  or  at  a  certain  angle,  due 
to  the  mechanism  of  his  hand  and  the  training  to  which  it  has  long  been 
subjected;  he  lifts  his  pen  before  certain  letters,  certain  loops  or  curves 
bear  a  certain  proportion  to  certain  others,  and  so  on.  A  man  finds  it 
fully  as  difficult  to  write  exactly  like  any  other  man  as  he  does  to  walk 
like  him  or  speak  like  him,  and  in  imitations  of  both  of  these,  although 
laughable  similarities  may  sometimes  be  accomplished,  they  are  seldom 
really  deceptive.  A  forgery  made  over  a  previous  tracing  is  oftentimes 
less  successful  than  one  executed  free-hand,  for  it  lacks  all  the  boldness  of 
an  untrammeled  motion,  and  the  forger  needs  to  pause,  or  remove  his  pen, 
from  time  to  time,  often  in  unusual  and  unlikely  places,  in  order  to  see 
the  line  he  is  following. 

Summarizing,  then:  an  expert,  acquainted  with  the  pen-habits  of  a 
given  individual,  might  use  a  forged  handwriting  to  identify  the  forger 
with  about  the  same  degree  of  probability  as  in  a  case  of  identification 
by  any  other  series  of  complex  individual  motions  or  habits. 

Concerning  the  identification  value  of  all  the  traits  included  in  this 
chapter,  it  must  be  understood  that,  taken  by  themselves,  no  one  of  these 
would  be  sufficient  for  positive  identification.  Rather  are  they  of  use,  and 
often  of  very  great  use,  as  a  means  of  recognition,  especially  in  the  case  of 
a  fugitive  from  justice  who  does  not  wish  to  be  recognized.  We  all  know 
the  startling  recognition  value  of  a  voice  with  which  we  have  once  become 
familiar,  and  we  occasionally  have  cause  to  recognize  a  man  by  his  gait, 
his  gestures,  or  his  little  personal  habits  or  tricks,  especially  those  of  the 
facial  muscles.  A  correspondence  of  a  number  of  these  would  naturally 
strengthen  a  claim  to  identification,  and,  taken  together  with  other  known 
facts,  would  serve  as  corroborative  evidence,  at  times  very  persuasive, 
but  they  are  none  of  them  tangible  evidence,  as  are  the  moles  and  scars 
of  the  preceding  chapter,  and  even  with  these,  unless  there  are  too  many 
coincidences,  that  is,  too  many  markings  that  correspond,  the  identifica- 
tion is  not  absolute. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  traits  are  peculiarly  individual;  it  is 
impossible  to  disguise  them  or  cover  them  up  for  long,  and  they  are  thus 


58  Personal  Identification 


of  the  utmost  importance  for  purposes  of  recognition.  They  should 
therefore  be  more  largely  employed  in  police  descriptions,  especially  in 
posted  handbills,  instead  of,  or  at  least  in  connection  with,  a  description 
of  the  clothing,  the  details  of  hair  and  beard,  and  the  usual  photograph. 
It  has  been  shown  above  how  completely  one  may  alter  his  facial  appear- 
ance, and  how  unlike  different  photographs  of  the  same  man  may  be; 
beard  and  clothing  are  alterable  within  a  few  minutes;  but  if  a  man 
is  left-handed,  toes  in,  stoops,  stutters,  or  talks  in  a  husky  falsetto,  it 
is  not  within  his  power  to  change  or  modify  for  long  any  one  of  these 
conspicuous  characters. 


CHAPTER  V 

IDENTIFICATION    BY    BODILY    MEASUREMENTS,    AND    BY    THE    FEATURES    OF 
THE    HEAD   AND    FACE;    THE  BERTILLON  SYSTEM 

"And  there  came  out  a  champion  out  of  the  camp  of  the  Philistines, 
named  Goliath,  of  Goth,  whose  height  was  six  cubits  and  a  span* 

And  he  had  a  helmet  of  brass  upon  his  head,  and  he  was  armed  with  a 
coat  of  mail;  and  the  weight  of  the  coat  was  five  thousand  shekels  of  brass. 

And  he  had  greaves  of  brass  upon  his  legs,  and  a  target  of  brass  between 
his  shoulders. 

And  the  staff  of  his  spear  was  like  a  weaver's  beam;  and  his  spear's 
head  weighed  six  hundred  shekels  of  iron:  and  one  bearing  a  shield  went 
before  him."  —  I  Samuel:  XVII,  4-7. 

BEGINNING  early  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  and  based  upon 
certain  suggestive  work  of  the  last  years  of  the  Eighteenth,  there 
has  developed  the  Science  of  Physical  Anthropology,  which  has 
for  its  goal  the  study  of  the  bodily  characters  of  the  various  human  races, 
as  a  zoologist  or  botanist  studies  the  varieties  of  a  domestic  species  of 
animal  or  plant.  This  study  involves  a  large  amount  of  measurement, 
both  of  the  living  body  and  of  bones,  especially  the  skull,  and  in  this  latter 
field  the  researches  include  the  excavated  bones  of  past,  and  even  pre- 
historic, races.  It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  enter  further  into  the  scope 
or  results  of  this  interesting  and  vitally  important  science  other  than  to 
give  a  brief  exposition  of  its  methods,  a  subject  directly  concerned  with 
the  work  of  this  chapter. 

The  observational  part  of  the  science  consists  of  carefully  recorded 
facts  concerning  great  numbers  of  living  individuals,  of  skulls,  of  other 
bones,  and  of  other  anatomical  data,  such  as  muscular  variations,  and  is 
to  a  large  extent  a  study  of  measurements  or  anthropometry.  Thus,  for 
the  skull  32  separate  measurements  were  adopted  in  1906  by  the  Interna- 
tional Congress  of  Anthropology,  at  the  meeting  in  Monaco,  and  recom- 
mended for  universal  use,  and  in  1912  the  same  body,  assembled  at  Geneva, 

*According  to  our  system  of  measures  this  man  was  nine  feet  and  nine  inches 
tall  (Bertillon  height  2.97.2),  and  he  ought  to  have  weighed  784  pounds.  It  would  have 
been  of  the  greatest  interest  to  have  measured  this  man  according  to  the  Bertillon 
system.  A  man  who  was  able  to  wear  a  coat  of  mail  weighing  184  pounds,  in  addition 
to  other  weights,  and  who  could  handle  a  spear  with  a  head  weighing  22  pounds,  would 
be  in  a  class  by  himself. 

59 


60  Personal  Identification 


adopted  49  definite  measurements  for  the  living  body,  and  in  both  cases 
the  measurements  adopted  were  taken  from  a  much  larger  number,  which 
had  been  used  by  investigators  for  many  years.  The  number  of  measure- 
ments used  by  individual  anthropologists  is  usually  much  greater  than 
that,  and  include  other  bones  besides  the  skull.  Thus  Koganel  and  Osawa 
in  1900,  in  their  work  on  the  pelvis  of  the  Aino  and  the  Japanese,  used  37 
measurements  for  the  pelvic  bones  (ossa  innominata  and  sacrum),  and  16 
for  the  pelvic  region  of  the  living. 

As  seen  by  the  dates,  the  investigations  used  here  as  examples  are 
comparatively  modern,  but  even  fifty  years  ago,  before  the  science  of 
anthropometry  had  progressed  as  far  as  at  present,  many  measurements 
were  taken,  both  of  bones  and  of  the  living,  the  purpose  being  that  of  a 
detailed  comparison  of  the  different  human  varieties,  on  the  same  basis 
as  the  work  of  the  zoologist,  who  thus  describes  and  differentiates  the 
varieties  of  an  animal  species. 

It  was  in  March,  1882,  when  a  young  French  anthropologist  of  twenty- 
nine,  Alphonse  Bert. lion,  conceived  the  idea  that  certain  of  these  anthro- 
pological methods,  which  gave  so  minute  and  particular  a  description  of  a 
given  human  individual,  would  be  much  more  accurate  when  applied  to 
a  criminal  than  the  usual  police  descriptions;  that  certain  measurements, 
of  those  which  he  had  been  trained  to  use  for  the  purpose  of  a  scientific 
description,  and  for  the  taking  of  which  accurate  instruments  had  already 
been  invented,  would  serve  to  identify  a  given  individual  with  considerable 
precision,  provided  his  measurements,  previously  taken,  and  in  the  hands 
of  the  police,  were  available  for  comparison. 

This  idea  of  Bertillon  made  instant  appeal  to  the  authorities,  and  in 
1882  a  new  institution,  the  Identification  Bureau,  was  established  at  the 
police  headquarters  in  Paris,  and  the  young  anthropologist,  then  twenty- 
nine  years  old,  was  called  to  the  head  of  it,  for  the  purpose  of  introducing 
and  developing  his  system.  Three  years  after  that,  in  1885,  he  published 
an  account  of  his  system  in  a  small  book  of  95  pages,  preparing  it  primarily 
for  the  International  Prison  Congress,  meeting  that  year  in  Rome.  The 
large  second  edition,  practically  a  new  book,  as  it  contained  over  300  pages 
and  was  accompanied  by  an  explanatory  atlas,  appeared  in  1893,  and  this, 
the  permanent  edition,  is  the  one  which,  translated  into  many  languages, 
has  served  to  introduce  his  system  into  other  countries.  The  American 
edition,  in  English,  appeared  in  1896,  translated  under  the  supervision  of 
Major  R.  W.  McClaughry,  then  Warden  of  the  Illinois  State  Penitentiary 
at  Joliet,  Illinois,  and  at  the  time  of  his  retirement  in  1913  Warden  of  the 
United  States  Penitentiary  at  Leavenworth,  Kansas.  As  Chief  of  the  Judi- 
cial Identification  Service  of  France,  his  official  title,  Bertillon  retained  the 
position  created  for  him,  continually  improving  his  system,  until  his  death, 
February  13,  1914,  at  the  age  of  61.  As  proof  of  his  broadmindedness 


The  Bertillon  System  61 


and  disinterestedness,  holding  as  his  first  object  the  cause  of  identification,, 
to  which  even  his  own  system  was  secondary,  he  adopted  rather  recently 
the  system  of  identification  by  finger  prints,  devised  by  Sir  Francis  Galton,. 
and  added  it  to  his  own,  finding  a  place  for  certain  finger-print  records  on 
his  "  Signaletic  Cards. "  The  openness  of  his  mind  in  this  instance  is  es- 
pecially shown  by  the  fact  that  in  his  earlier  writings  he  was  not  favorably 
disposed  toward  the  use  of  finger  prints,  and  wrote  in  1893 :  "  Unfortunately 
it  is  quite  undeniable,  notwithstanding  the  ingenious  researches  conducted 
by  M.  Francis  Galton  in  England,  that  these  designs  do  not  present  in 
themselves  elements  of  variability  sufficiently  trenchant  to  serve  as  a 
basis  in  a  collection  of  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  cases.  "* 

By  the  irony  of  Fate,  and  as  a  sad  comment  upon  popular  wisdom, 
Bertillon  is  commonly  supposed  to  have  been  the  inventor  of  the  finger- 
print method,  or  at  least  to  share  that  honor  with  Mark  Twain,  who 
chanced  to  use  a  thumb  mark  in  his  "Pudd'nhead  Wilson."  All  the 
painstaking  work  of  Galton  and  his  predecessors  go  for  nothing  in  popular 
estimation,  which  finds  it  easier  to  concentrate  all  the  great  achievements 
of  humanity  upon  a  single  person,  and  thus  be  relieved  of  the  burden  of 
learning  so  many  names.  Bertillon  achieved  sufficient  honor  by  devising 
and  establishing  the  first  scientific  system  of  identification;  Francis  Galton,. 
on  the  other  side  of  the  English  Channel,  devised  another;  Mark  Twain, 
working  in  a  very  different  field,  found  the  opportunity  to  instruct  the 
people  and  bring  to  public  notice  the  physical  basis  upon  which  the  Galton 
system  was  founded. 

Bertillon's  complete  system,  as  it  appeared  in  1893,  included  the 
oldj  descriptive  methods  under  two  heads:  (1)  Descriptive  data  (Signale- 
ment  descriptif),  under  which  he  included  such  points  as  complexion,  color 
of  hair  and  eyes,  shape  of  nose,  ear,  and  face,  and  so  on,  and  (2)  Special 
bodily  marks  (Signalement  au  moyen  des  marques  particulieres),  which  in- 
cluded moles,  scars,  tattoo  marks  and  the  like.  To  these  he  added  a  third, 
his  own  particular  system,  that  of  (3)  Bodily  measurements  (Signalement 
anthropometrique) . 

For  the  purpose  sought  he  employed  only  measurements  which  de- 
pend on  skeletal  parts;  which  are,  therefore,  practically  unchanging  after 
maturity,  and  unaffected  by  increase  or  decrease  in  weight,  muscular 
exercise,  or  other  conditions.  The  measurements  selected  to  form  the 
basis  of  his  system  are  the  following: 

I.      Measurements  based  upon  the  entire  body  (Mesures  relevees  sur  I 'ensemble 
du  corps). 

*"  M alheureusement  il  est  tout  aussi  indeniable,  malgre  les  recherches  ingenieuses 
poursuivies  par  M.  Francis  Galton  en  Angleterre.  que  ces  dessins  ne  presentent  pas  par 
eux-meme  des  elements  de  variabilite  assez  tranches  pour  servir  de  base  d  un  repertoire  de 
plusieurs  centaines  de  mille  cas."  Instruc.  Signaletiques,  1893;  Introd.  p.  xvi. 


<J2  Personal  Identification 


Standing  height  (Taille  —  hauteur  de  Vhomme  debout). 

Arm  reach  (Envergure  des  bras). 

Sitting  height  (Buste  —  hauteur  de  Vhomme  assis). 

II.      Measurements  based  upon  the  head  (Mesures  relevees  sur  la  tete). 
Length  of  head  (Longeur  de  la  tete). 
Breadth  of  head  (Largeur  de  la  tete). 
Length  of  right  ear  (Longuer  de  Voreille  droite). 
Cheek  breadth;    bi-zygomatic  breadth  (Diametre  bizygomatique) . 

III.      Measurements  based  upon  the  extremities  (Mesures  relei  ees  sur  les 

membres). 

Length  of  left  foot  (Longeur  du  pied  gauche). 

Length  of  left  middle  finger  (Longueur  du  doigt  medius  gauche). 
Length  of  left  little  finger  (Longueur  de  Vauriculaire  gauche). 
Length  of  left  forearm  and  hand,  to  tip  of  extended  middle  finger 

(Longueur  de  la  coudee  gauche). 

In  his  book  of  1893,  Bertillon  uses  as  the  7th  measurement  the  breadth 
of  the  right  ear,  which  conveniently  follows  the  length  of  the  same  part, 
but  he  soon  substituted  for  this  the  bizygomatic  breadth  (or  width),  that 
is,  the  greatest  breadth  across  the  face,  with  the  points  of  the  calipers 
placed  upon  the  zygomatic  arches,  which  continues  the  cheek  bones  to  the 
•ears.  This  measurement,  usually  under  the  name  of  "Cheek  breadth," 
is  now  used  almost  universally  and  appears  thus  upon  American  signaletic 
cards,  occupying  the  place  of  the  ear  breadth,  for  which  it  is  substituted. 

Each  of  these  eleven  measurements  is  subdivided  into  three  groups: 
small,  medium,  and  large,  (petit,  moyen,  grand),  not  according  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  observer,  but  in  accordance  with  fixed  limits,  the  result  of 
much  experience  in  measurements,  and  designed  to  divide  an  average 
.set  of  measurements  into  three  approximately  equal  divisions,  rather  than 
to  divide  equally  the  total  range  of  millimeters  between  the  two  extremes. 
Thus,  to  quote  an  example  furnished,  "  the  numerical  limits  of  the  medium 
head-length,  as  used  at  the  Prefecture  of  Police  in  Paris,  include  an  in- 
terval of  but  six  millimeters  (185-190),  while  those  included  under  large 
extend  from  191mm  to  the  greatest  dimensions  possible,  an  extent  of 
more  than  three  centimeters  (=30mm)."* 

Now,  if  each  one  of  these  eleven  measurements  has  an  equal  chance 
of  falling  into  any  one  of  the  three  divisions,  the  total  number  of  combina- 
tions, and  consequently  of  subdivisions,  under  which  the  eleven  data  of  a 
given  individual  might  fall  would  be  naturally  the  llth  power  of  3,  or 
177,147;  that  is,  a  few  moments'  scrutiny  of  the  eleven  Bertillon  measure- 
ments of  a  subject  would  assign  him  definitely  to  a  certain  one  of  over 
170,000  compartments,  where,  in  a  collection  of  a  million  signalments,  if 
the  distribution  were  approximately  even,  there  would  be  about  ten 

*Bertillon;    Introduction,  p.  xxii.       (Translation  from  the  original.) 


The  Bertillon  System  63 


other  records.  These  could  then  be  easily  looked  over  and  compared  with 
reference  to  other  data,  aside  from  the  measurements. 

To  explain  further,  Bertillon  supposes  a  bureau  containing  90,000 
descriptive  cards,  a  number  corresponding  approximately  to  that  of  the 
adult  male  prisoners  recorded  in  the  Paris  prisons  up  to  1893.  Of  these 
the  first  subdivision  is  made  by  the  length  of  the  head,  and,  as  the  sub- 
divisions of  this  into  small,  medium,  and  large  are  limited  with  the  definite 
purpose  of  insuring  an  approximately  equal  division,  approximately 
30,000  records  would  be  found  in  each  group.  Each  of  these  subdivisions 
is  now  divided  again  into  three  approximately  equal  parts  by  the  breadth 
of  the  head,  a  division  which  leaves  perhaps  10,000  in  each  of  the  nine  groups 
thus  formed;  that  is,  there  will  be  in  each  of  the  nine  compartments  some 
10,000  individuals  in  which  both  the  head  length  and  head  breadth  fall 
into  the  same  categories.  The  third  division,  based  upon  the  length  of 
the  left  middle  finger,  by  dividing  each  of  the  previous  nine  into  three, 
makes  27  compartments,  with  about  3,300  in  each;  and  the  fourth,  based 
upon  the  length  of  the  left  foot,  again  multiplies  the  subdivisions  by  three, 
and  yields  81,  with  1,100  in  each.  But  even  eleven  hundred  signalments 
are  too  many  to  be  conveniently  compared  with  a  given  case,  and  the 
length  of  the  left  cubitus  (forearm  and  hand)  is  next  used,  giving  243  com- 
partments, with  a  few  more  than  350  in  each.  By  the  addition  of  the  total 
height,  the  subdivisions  become  729,  with  about  130  in  each,  and,  if;  this 
is  found  too  large  for  convenience,  the  subdivisions  may  become  2,187,;  with 
42  in  each  subdivision  by  the  use  of  the  length  of  the  left  little  finger. 

This  same  plan  of  subdividing  could  continue,  if  desired,  by  using  the 
remaining  four  measurements,  one  after  another,  but  when  a  group  is 
reduced  to  forty  or  fifty  it  has  been  found  more  convenient  and  ex- 
peditious to  rely  upon  quite  different  data,  such  as  the  color  of  the  eyfcs 
and  hair.  With  each  bureau  it  becomes  a  question  only  of  the  total  num- 
ber of  signalments  to  be  classified,  and  the  size  of  each  ultimate  group 
found  to  be  the  most  convenient.  The  number  of  compartments  is  always 
that  power  of  3  which  corresponds,  to  the  number  of  measurements  em- 
ployed, which  may  be  easily  calculated  by  the  reader,  or  can  be  ascer- 
tained from  the  following  table.  In  a  definite  case,  divide  the  total  num- 
ber of  cases  to  be  classified  by  the  number  of  subdivisions  at  any  stage 
in  the  classification,  and  the  result  will  be  the  number  of  cases  left  in  a 
compartment,  when  the  classification  stops  at  that  stage. 

Using  1  measurement  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  3  (31) 

Using  2  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  9  (32) 

Using  3  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  27  (33) 

Using  4  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  81  (34) 

Using  5  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  243  (35) 

Using  6  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  729  (36) 


64 


Personal  Identification 


Using  7  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  2187  (37) 
Using  8  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  6561  (38) 
Using  9  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  19683  (39) 
Using  10  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  59049  (310) 
Using  11  measurements  the  total  number  of  compartments  is  177147  (311) 

This  table  will  indicate  at  once  to  a  given  station  how  far  it  is  necessary 
to  carry  the  classification,  for  one  may  easily  select  the  number  of  separate 
compartments  desirable  for  the  number  of  cases  that  need  to  be  recorded 
and  classified.  Thus,  if  a  station  has  3,000  cases,  the  use  of  the  first  four 


•  FIGURE  12.  A  typical  Bertillon  photograph.  Such  a  photograph  shows  the  ex- 
act profile  on  the  left  and  the  full  face  on  the  right.  This  example  shows  also  the 
practice,  in  some  places,  of  presenting  the  first  bareheaded,  and  the  second  wearing 
a  hat  or  cap.  This  is  to  be  strongly  recommended,  as  a  man  looks  so  differently 
under  the  two  conditions,  and  is  likely  to  be  found  either  way.  The  best  size  of 
such  photographs,  for  Police  work  in  general,  is  one-fifth  natural  size,  as  given  here. 


measures  (head  length,  head  breadth,  length  of  left  middle  finger,  and 
length  of  left  foot)  will  probably  be  sufficient,  since  it  will  give  81  separate 
compartments,  averaging  37  records  in  a  compartment.  In  a  small 
station  with  1,000  cases,  the  use  of  only  the  first  three  (head  length,  head 
breadth,  length  of  left  middle  finger)  will  be  sufficient,  since  it  will  furnish 
27  separate  compartments,  each  having  an  average  of  37  separate  cases. 
It  might,  however,  be  more  convenient  to  use  the  fourth  measure  (length 
of  left  foot)  and  get  81  compartments,  each  with  12-13  cases,  which  would 
give  greater  ease  in  finding  a  given  case. 

With  occasional  modifications,  the  Bertillon  system  has  been  intro- 


The  BertilLon  System  65 


duced  officially  in  the  majority  of  the  civilized  countries  of  the  world, 
including  England,  Russia,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  the  United  States,  and 
most  of  the  South  American  republics;  but  the  governmental  accept- 
ance of  a  system  does  not  mean  an  extensive  practical  use.  The  metric 
system  of  weights  and  measures  has  now  this  many  years  been  "accepted" 
by  the  United  States  Government,  but  carpenters  and  shopkeepers  still 
universally  use  inches  and  ounces  as  though  the  metric  system  had  never 
been  invented.  They  go  on  clogging  up  their  calculations  with  vulgar 
fractions,  they  burden  themselves  with  complex  reductions  from  inches  to 
feet,  and  from  ounces  to  pounds,  dividing  or  multiplying  by  12  or  by  16,  or 
even,  in  land  measures,  by  16f ,  when  with  the  use  of  the  metric  system 
all  fractions  would  be  decimals,  and  all  reductions  would  be  accomplished 
in  an  instant  by  simply  shifting  the  decimal  point. 

Fortunately  matters  do  not  stand  as  badly  with  the  Bertillon  system 
as  with  the  metric,  for  in  all  of  our  larger  institutions  Bertillon  measure- 
ments are  taken,  and  placed  upon  descriptive  cards  accompanying  the 
two  photographs  (front  and  side),  (Figure  12).  The  verbal  description, 
the  "marks  and  scars,"  and  other  matters,  are  placed  on  the  reverse. 
There  is,  however,  a  great  amount  of  variability  in  the  way  in  which  the 
Bertillon  data  are  presented,  so  that  the  method  employed  by  each  in- 
stitution must  be  learned  before  using  the  measurements.  For  this  a 
few  illustrations  will  suffice,  taken  directly  from  recent  descriptions  from 
large  state  and  United  States  institutions. 

The  two  first  presented  are  the  most  complete  and  give  the  designa- 
tion of  each  of  the  11  Bertillon  measurements.  One  of  these  gives  also 
an  equivalent  in  inches  for  the  total  height. 

BERTILLON  MEASUREMENTS 

Height 1     M      80.0  Cheek 14.4 

Out  Arms  1     M      85.0  Ear  Length  6.1  + 

Trunk 96.0  Left  Foot 26.6 

Head  Length 19.0  Left  Middle  Finger   11.8 

Head  Width 15.5  Left  Little  Finger 9.1 

Left  Forearm     48.3 

BERTILLON  MEASUREMENT 


Height  1m  70  2 

Head  Lgth..  17.0 

L.  Foot  .  . 

25  0 

5  feet  ?i  inches 
Outer  A.,  1m  75.0 
Trunk  90.2 

Head  Wdth...l5.2 
Cheek  Wdth..l3.7 
Lgth.  R.  Ear  5.9  + 

L.  Mid.F.  .. 
L.  Lit.  F... 
L.  Fore  A.. 

..11.3 
..    8.5 
.  .46.0 

More  usually,  as  in  the  next  illustration,  no  designations  are  given, 
which  perhaps  would  not  be  necessary  if  all  11  measurements  were  always 
given,  but  this  is  not  the  case.  In  the  first  of  these  two  examples 
the  11  measurements  follow  one  another  in  the  usual  manner,  but  in  the 
sezond  one  finds  but  ten,  and,  unless  the  system  is  well  known,  it  takes 


Personal  Identification 


HERTILLON  MEASUREMENTS 


1.74  3  |     1.520      88.7    |     19.9          15.7   |     15.0     |      6.3          27.4    |      12.2        9.1   |    S ).() 

BERTILLON  MEASUREMENTS 

1.58  5  |      1.65  0    |      18.8     |      18.3     1      15.0    |     5.3      |      24.5  |      11.5  |     9.2      |      44?4 

some  time  to  preceive  that  the  missing  number  is  the  cheek  breadth, 
which  should  be  the  sixth.  Naturally,  it  is  not  always  possible  to  obtain 
a  complete  set  of  the  Bertillon  measurements,  but  when  omissions  are 
necessary  they  should  be  indicated.  The  next  case  gives  a  suggestion  on 
this  point,  where  blanks  for  the  omissions  are  retained  and  the  omissions 
indicated  by  stars. 

BERTILLON  MEASUREMENTS 


1.67.5      1.78.5      87.0      6.3       20.3      15.3       13.8      6.3      3.2       23.9      11.6      9.4        47.9 


BERTILLON  MEASUREMENTS 


1.68.0  |   1.70.0  |     89.0     |    *    |     18.6    |   15.0    [  6.7    [  *  |     24.2  |   11.3  |  8.5  |  44.9 

The  next  is  particularly  bad,  as  the  reader  may  see  without  further 
explanation. 

BERTILLON:— 1.60.1;    1.64;    85.2;    18.6;    15;    13.5;    6;    23.2;    10.7;    7.9;    43.2 
BERTILLON:— 1.71.8;   1.85;  90.5;   19.1;   16;   12.5;   6;   26.8;   11.5;   9.3;   46. 

The  two  following  illustrate  a  more  or  less  common  practice,  that  of 
leaving  off  the  designation  of  the  meter  (1)  in  the  numbers  indicating  total 
height,  and  arm-reach,  the  first  two.  Of  course  this  makes  no  real 
difference  to  one  who  is  accustomed  to  the  method,  but  it  introduces  a  new 
variety,  and  aids  in  the  bewilderment  of  the  average  policeman  or  sheriff, 
trying  faithfully  to  understand  and  use  a  system  comparatively  new  to 
him.  Even  such  a  little  thing  as  the  use  of  hyphens  instead  of  periods  in 
one  of  these  last  examples  adds  to  the  confusion,  besides  being  a  naive 
attempt  to  introduce  a  brand-new  system  of  writing  decimals,  a  rather 
daring  feat. 

MEASUREMENTS 

80.9                                      20.0  25.5 

15.7  11.6 

84.                                        14.3  9.4 

97.2                                          6.1  47.8 


BERTILLON 

70-3,  77-0,  88-0,  19-4,  14-6,  13-8,  5-4,  25-3,  11-1,  8-7,  47-1. 


The  Bertillon  System  67 


Aside  from  all  these,  Bertillon's  early  substitution  of  the  cheek  breadth 
for  the  ear  breadth,  although  a  change  very  much  for  the  better,  has  in 
some  quarters  added  further  to  the  confusion,  and  the  latter  will  still  be 
occasionally  found  in  a  record,  either  substituted  for  the  now  usual  cheek 
breadth,  or,  as  also  occurs,  added  to  the  other  11.  Its  value  is  so  much 
less  than  that  of  the  cheek  breadth  that  the  two  are  easily  distinguished, 
yet  it  introduces  still  another  element  of  possible  confusion  against  which 
one  must  constantly  be  on  his  guard. 

The  introduction  of  the  Bertillon  system  in  December,  1882,  created 
an  actual  revolution  in  the  recognition  of  criminals.  During  the  first 
full  year  of  operation,  1883,  49  individuals,  who  persisted  in  the  use  of 
false  names,  were  positively  identified,  and  in  the  second  year,  1884,  the 
number  of  such  was  increased  to  241.  The  number  of  such  identifications 
increased  continually,  425  in  1885,  550  in  1888,  and  680  in  1892,  so  that 
criminals  began  to  realize  that  attempts  at  concealment  under  an  alias 
was  useless,  when  pitted  against  the  resources  of  scientific  anthropology. 
For  classification  purposes,  for  example,  finding  the  card  corresponding 
to  a  given  man,  Bertillon  has  always  used  the  11  measures,  or  as  many  of 
them  as  were  necessary,  as  described  above;  but  he  incorporated  also, 
as  a  definite  part  of  his  system,  a  careful  description  of  obvious  facial 
characters.  These  are  treated  in  his  manual  under  the  following  heads : 

I.     Chromatic  (color)  characters: 
Color  of  the  eyes. 
Shades  of  the  beard  and  hair. 
Complexion. 

II.     Morphological  (form)  characters  having  special  headings  on  the  signaletic 
card: 
Forehead. 
Nose. 
Ear. 

Build  (breadth  and  girth). 
III.     Morphological   characters    having   no   special    headings   on   the  signaletic 

card: 

Supplementary  features  of  the  profile. 
Lips. 
Chin. 

General  contour. 

Supplementary  features  of  the  face  (seen  in  full) : 
General  contour. 

Insertion  of  hair,  its  abundance,  etc. 
Beard. 
Eyebrows. 
Eyeballs;  orbits. 
Eyelids. 
Mouth. 
Facial  wrinkles. 


68  •  Personal  Identification 


The  description  is  completed  by  the  careful  description  of  bodily 
marks,  with  the  shorthand  notation  given  above. 

An  important  and  necessary  part  of  the  Bertillon  system  of  descrip- 
tion is  his  Atlas  of  Photographic  Plates,  which  gives  the  types  of  foreheads, 
noses,  chins,  ears  and  so  on,  illustrating  the  words  which  he  uses  as  tech- 
nical terms  in  describing  them.  As  these  terms  are  in  the  French  language, 
and  as  it  frequently  happens  that  French  and  English  adjectives  are  not 
exact  equivalents,  the  work  of  preparing  an  English  edition  was  very  great. 
This  has  been  so  skilfully  done  in  the  McClaughry  edition  that  we  have 
in  it  a  standard  for  people  of  the  English  tongue  quite  the  equivalent  of 
the  French  edition.  It  must  be  insisted  upon,  however,  that,  in  following 
the  system,  one  should  not  write  a  description  in  the  words  which  may  happen 
to  come  to  him,  but  should  use  each  descriptive  word  exactly  as  defined  and 
illustrated  in  the  manual.  Any  other  use  of  words  would  be  liable  to  be 
inexact,  and  to  one  skilled  in  the  Bertillon  system  would  be  positively 
misleading. 

In  Bertillon's  first  division  of  the  descriptive  part,  that  of  chromatic 
characters,  which  includes  the  color  of  the  eyes,  hair  and  skin,  the  an- 
thropologists, who,  although  working  for  another  purpose,  are  as  insistent 
in  their  demands  for  accuracy  of  description,  have  developed  a  system 
which  is  a  decided  improvement  on  that  of  Bertillon,  and  one  which  may 
be  well  introduced  into  police  circles  of  this  country.  They  have  prepared 
standardized  sets  of  samples,  one  for  eyes,  one  for  hair,  and  one  for  skin. 
The  first  contains  a  set  of  16  standardized  artificial  eyes,  arranged  in  order, 
from  the  darkest  to  the  lightest,  and  numbered  consecutively.  The  whole 
is  enclosed  in  a  strong  box  of  japanned  metal,  and  may  be  easily  transported 
without  fear  of  breakage. 

The  set  of  standard  colors  for  the  hair  consists  of  30  samples  made  of 
silk  threads,  the  samples  arranged  in  a  row  upon  a  metallic  base,  and  con- 
secutively numbered.  The  skin  color  samples  are  made  of  a  sort  of  por- 
celain glass,  and  will  not  fade.  They  number  36. 

These  three  sets  of  standard  colors,  devised  for  the  purpose  named, 
are  now  in  use  by  anthropologists  all  over  the  world,  and  would  be  most 
convenient  for  the  use  of  police  bureaus.  The  Eye  table  was  prepared 
by  the  Swiss  anthropologist,  Rudolf  Martin;  the  Hair  table  by  Eugen 
Fischer  of  the  University  of  Freiburg,  and  the  Skin  table  was  the  work  of 
the  anthropologist  of  the  University  of  Berlin,  von  Luschan.  All  three 
are  sold  by  P.  Hermann,  Scheuchzerstrasse  71,  Zurich,  Switzerland.  The 
price  is  moderate.* 

Without  seeming  ungracious  to  a  system  the  advantage  of  which 
over  all  previous  systems  has  been  universally  recognized,  and  to  one  the 

*Eye  table,  $15.00;   Hair  table,  $6.50;  Skin  table,  $2.50.     The  duty  is  extra. 


The  Bertillon  System  69 


thoroughly  scientific  principles  of  which  reflect  so  much  credit  upon  the 
deviser,  it  is  yet  necessary  here  to  consider  the  defects  of  the  Bertillon  sys- 
tem. Some  of  these  are  incident  to  any  system  which  human  ingenuity 
can  devise,  and  most  of  them  have  already  been  foreseen,  acknowledged, 
and  corrected  so  far  as  possible  by  M.  Bertillon  himself.  The  following 
may  be  enumerated  here: 

1.  The  system  is  limited  to  the  period  of  adult  life,  between  the  ages  of  perhaps 

20  and  65.  This  is  obviously  because  of  growth  up  to  maturity  and 
senile  changes  in  late  life. 

2.  There  is  often  considerable  disparity  between  the  measurements  of  the  same 

individual,  as  taken  by  two  different  operators,  or  by  the  same  operator 
a  jecond  time. 

3.  For  the  purpose  of  dividing  a  given  measurement  into  approximately  equal 

groups  Bertillon  fixes  definite  limits  for  the  three  groups,  small,  medium 
and  large.  These  limits  are  based,  however,  upon  the  measurements  of 
Frenchmen,  and  thus  would  not  apply  as  well  to  subjects  taken  from  other 
nations.  If  an  American  city,  for  instance,  had  to  deal  with  a  large  num- 
ber of  cases,  it  would  be  necessary  to  assign  different  arbitrary  limits  to  the 
sub-divisions,  small,  medium,  and  large,  in  order  to  insure  an  equal  division. 

Concerning  these  objections  in  detail,  the  first  is  of  no  great  impor- 
tance when  dealing  with  criminals  only,  as  the  period  of  criminal  activity 
generally  falls  within  the  limit  during  which  the  measurements  are  con- 
stant. As  a  system  for  the  general  identification  of  all  citizens,  however, 
where  many  of  the  identifications  would  concern  children  and  the  aged, 
the  system  would  be  valueless. 

The  second  objection  has  been  well  anticipated  by  Bertillon  himself, 
who  has  carefully  noted  the  usual  percentage  of  error  to  be  expected 
on  the  part  of  an  expert  operator,  in  the  case  of  each  measurement,  and 
has  published  the  following  table,  which  should  always  be  at  hand,  or 
well  in  mind,  when  comparisons  are  made.  The  first  column  (A)  gives 
the  probable  deviation  upon  either  side  of  the  exact  truth  occurring  in  a 
series  of  expert  measurements  of  the  same  subject;  the  second  (B),  by 
doubling  the  first,  gives  the  range,  upon  either  side,  beyond  which  the 
error  is  grave,  while  by  doubling  this  again  (C)  the  total  range  of  probable 
error  is  reached,  beyond  which  "one  is  justified  in  declaring  non-identity." 

Concerning  the  normal  percentage  of  error  to  be  expected,  Bertillon 
says,  "It  is  almost  impossible,  for  example,  to  obtain  twice  over  the  same 
set  of  millimetrical  figures  for  the  height,  the  trunk,  and  the  width  of  ear," 
and  to  this  he  adds  in  a  footnote,  "Thus  falls  the  popular  argument  which 
consists  in  enlarging  upon  millimetrical  differences  in  the  height,  the  trunk, 
the  ear,  the  forearm,  etc.,  to  prove  the  non-identity  of  two  signalments. 
The  question  here  is  to  know,  not  whether  there  are  differences  (since  it  is 
impossible  that  there  should  not  be  some),  but  how  great  they  are,  and  es- 


70 


Personal  Identification 


pecially  whether  they  do  not  exceed  the  limits  of  necessary  approxima- 
tion."    (Bertillon:  System  of  Identification,  Engl.  transl.  p.  24.) 


A 

B 

C 

MEASUREMENTS 

Approximation 
theoretically  requisite 
(in  +  or  in  —  ) 

Discrepancy 
beyond  which 
GRAVE  ERROR 

begins 

Mistakes  of  a  very 
serious    character, 
or  discrepancies 
beyond  which  one 
is  justified  in  declar- 
ing non-identity 

Height   

7mm. 

15mm. 

30mm. 

Arm  reach  "  .. 

10 

20 

40 

Trunk  

7 

15 

30 

Length  of  head     ... 

0.5 

1 

2 

Breadth  of  head  

0.5 

1 

2 

Length  of  right  ear 

1 

2 

4 

Breadth  of  right  ear      

1.5 

3 

6 

Length  of  left  foot     . 

1.5 

3 

6 

Length  of  left  middle  finger  

0.5 

1 

2 

Length  of  left  little  finger  . 

0.75 

2 

3 

Length  of  left  forearm  

1.5 

3 

6 

As  concrete  examples  of  the  validity  of  this  objection  we  present 
two  sets  of  cases;  one,  where  the  same  man  has  yielded  very  unlike  sets 
of  measurements  at  different  places  and  times,  and  the  other,  where  the 
measurements  of  different  men  are  quite  within  the  percentage  of  expected 
error  in  the  measurements  of  a  single  individual.  In  this  latter  case, 
however,  the  descriptions  would  be  differentiated  by  such  characters  as 
the  color  of  hair  and  eyes,  bodily  markings  and  details  of  the  features. 

The  first  concerns  one  "Portland  Fatty,"  whose  measurements 
appear  on  the  records  of  various  institutions  in  the  United  States  as  follows : 


1899 

1908 

1909 

1909 

1912 

Height 

1.63.0 

1.63.5 

1.62.7 

1.63.7 

1.63.5 

Outer  Arrn 

1.73.0 

1.71.0 

1.74.0 

1.73.0 

1.73.0 

Trunk  ..     .. 

82.4 

82.9 

84.3 

84.2 

86.0 

Head  length  ... 

19.2 

19.2 

19.4 

18.8 

19.4 

Head  breadth  

15.1 

15.8 

15.9 

16.0 

16.0 

Cheek  width  

14.5 

14.4 

14.8 

14.5 

Ear  length     

7.0 

7.0 

7.0 

6.9 

6.8 

Foot  

25.9 

25.4 

25.7 

25.9 

26.0 

Middle  finger  

11.8 

11.7 

11.8 

11.8 

12.0 

Little  finger                   .    . 

9.0 

9.0 

8.9 

8.9 

8.9 

ForeArm 

46.7 

46.8 

46.7 

46.9 

46.8 

The  Bertillon  System 


71 


Here  it  will  be  seen  that  some  of  the  measurements  of  this  elusive 
gentleman  exceed  the  limits  of  error  allowed  by  the  table  of  Bertillon. 
The  head  length,  which  allows  an  error  (including  both  +  and  — )  of  but 
2mm.,  probably  since  it  is  made  over  resistent  bone,  placed  near  the  surface, 
was  measured  in  1909  as  188  mm.,  and  in  a  great  police  department  the 
same  year,  as  194mm.,  a  difference  far  greater  than  the  limit,  "beyond 
which  one  is  justified  in  declaring  non-identity."  In  head  width,  which 
allows  the  same  amount  of  error  as  the  head  length  (2mm.),  the  discrep- 
ancy of  measurements  is  still  greater,  being  a  matter  of  no  less  than  9mm. 
(151  and  160). 

The  other  example  comes  from  Scotland  Yard,  and  gives  the  Bertillon 
measurements  of  three  different  men,  as  follows: 


MEASUREMENT 

Robert  Brown 

William  Bronw 

J.  Jenkins 

Height            

5'—  9f" 

5'—  9f" 

5'—  91" 

Outer  arm  (arm  reach) 

1.77.1mm. 

1.77.0mm. 

1.77.3mm. 

Trunk 

1.93.2 

1.93.1 

1.93.2 

Head  length 

18.4 

18.4 

18.3 

Head  breadth 

16.5 

16.5 

16.5 

Ear  length 

6.4 

6.3 

6.4 

Length  of  left  foot 

26.7 

26.7 

26.5 

Length  of  left  middle  finger 

11.8 

11.8 

11.7 

Length  of  left  little  finger  . 

9  2 

9.2 

9.3 

Length  of  left  forearm  

46.2 

46.3 

46.2 

In  these  three  records  several  of  the  measurements  are  identical  to 
the  tenth  of  a  centimeter,  and  in  the  case  of  the  head  breadth  there  is  not 
even  this  difference.  In  no  case  does  the  difference  begin  to  reach  the 
limit  of  expected  error,  and  the  three  are  thus  far  more  nearly  alike  than 
would  be  naturally  found  in  two  sets  of  measurements  of  the  same  in- 
dividual ;  and  yet  they  are  the  record  of  three  different  men,  quite  unlike 
in  other  details,  notably  the  finger  prints,  which  were  entirely  different 
from  one  another. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  as  in  the  previous  ones,  comes  the  inevi- 
table question  of  the  actual  value  of  the  Bertillon  system  of  measurements 
as  a  means  of  positive  identification,  and  in  view  of  facts  like  those  here 
presented  it  is  necessary  to  deny  to  it  this  power.  No  one  should  be  willing 
to  condemn  a  man  to  execution  on  an  identification  based  upon  a  set  of 
measurements  which  can  vary  so  widely  when  made  upon  the  same  in- 
dividual, and  can  be  found  so  near  alike  upon  different  individuals.  The 
value  of  "Bertillonage,"  as  the  French  aptly  call  this  system,  depends 
upon  the  ease  with  which  a  man  may  be  catalogued  and  classified,  and 


72  Personal  Identification 


at  any  subsequent  time  traced  to  a  pigeon-hole  containing  the  records  of 
a  small  number  of  individuals,  among  which  he  may  be  readily  found. 

It  must  finally  ever  be  remembered  that  the  work  of  Bertillon  means 
much  more  than  this,  and  does  not  rest  upon  the  merits  of  the  definite 
system  of  measurement  which  he  inaugurated;  for  he  was  the  first  to  apply 
the  scientific  methods  of  descriptive  anthropology  to  the  identification  of  human 
individuals,  and  has  thus  opened  the  way  for  the  application  of  other  and  more 
precise  methods,  for  all  that  anthropology  has  to  offer  in  this  direction  in  the 
service  of  humanity. 


CHAPTER  VI 

IDENTIFICATION  OF  FRAGMENTARY,   DECOMPOSED,   OR  DRIED  REMAINS; 
IDENTIFICATION  OF  BONES  AND  TEETH 

"See  now  to  this  cursed  woman,  and  bury  her:  for  she  is  a  king's  daughter. 
And  they  went  to  bury  her:  but  they  found  no  more  of  her  than  the  skull,  and 
the  feet,  and  the  palms  of  her  hands  .  .  .  so  that  they  shall  not  say,  This  is 
Jezebel."—  II  Kings;  IX,  34-37. 

MUTILATED  or  fragmentary  human  remains,  unidentifiable  through 
ordinary  means,  are  usually  in  the  form  of  (1)  burned  bodies 
found  in  the  ashes  of  a  conflagration;  (2)  decomposed  bodies 
taken  from  the  water,  or  found  in  the  woods  or  other  unfrequented 
places;  and  (3)  bodies,  or  fragments  of  bodies,  torn  by  explosion  or  victims 
of  cannonading.  Occasionally,  too,  though  rarely,  a  question  comes  up 
concerning  the  identity  of  a  buried  body,  disinterred  after  a  longer  or 
shorter  period  of  burial,  embalmed  or  not,  and  presenting  in  the  extreme 
case  nothing  but  the  bones,  or  bone  fragments.  To  these  may  be  added 
the  fragments  or  traces  resulting  from  some  very  unusual  method  of  dis- 
posing of  a  body,  as  in  the  Webster-Parkman  case  at  Cambridge,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1849,  or  the  Luetgert  case  in  Chicago  in  1898. 

Each  case  of  this  kind  presents  a  distinct  problem,  the  questions  be- 
fore the  examiner  being:  Is  there  something  here  which  may  give  informa- 
tion concerning  the  individual  whose  remains  are  here  presented?  Can 
the  organized  and  formulated  body  of  facts  constituting  the  science  of 
anatomy,  including  its  specialized  subdivision  of  physical  anthropology, 
and  dealing  with  every  detail  of  the  physical  body,  yield  any  data  which 
may  assist  in  an  identification? 

Naturally,  the  completeness  and  detail  of  such  information  depend 
ultimately  in  each  case  upon  what  remains  are  still  present,  but  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  data  depends  upon  the  knowledge  and  patience  of 
the  examiner.  As  set  forth  in  detail  in  Part  II  of  this  work  an  absolute 
identification  is  possible  with  even  a  small  fragment  of  the  skin  from  a 
palm,  a  sole,  or  a  finger,  but  in  order  to  do  this  the  examiner  must  have 
in  his  possession  a  print,  or  at  least  some  record  of  the  surface  found,  with 
which  to  compare  it.  The  arrangement  of  the  hair  on  the  surface  of  the 
body  is  oftentimes  markedly  characteristic,  and  in  cases  where  there 
is  any  official  record  of  this,  or  where  a  good  account  may  be  obtained  from 
some  associate  to  use  in  comparison,  an  almost  absolute  identification  may 

73 


Personal  Identification 


be  expected.  Among  the  bones,  the  skull  is  the  most  characteristic,  as  it 
conditions,  with  considerable  precision,  the  features  of  the  external  head 
and  face.  (See  Chapter  VII.)  The  teeth,  too,  are  among  the  most  durable 
parts  of  the  entire  body,  and  if  the  subject  has  been  much  under  the  care 
of  a  dentist,  the  dental  records  are  usually  available,  by  a  comparison 
with  which  an  absolute  identification  is  at  times  possible. 

These  parts,  the  palms,  soles,  fingers,  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  the  skull, 
furnish  the  material,  and  the  only  material,  according  to  our  present  knowl- 
edge, from  which  an  absolute  identification  can  be  made,  and  it  is  thus  a 
little  singular,  as  Sir  Francis  Galton  has  already  pointed  out*,  that  in  the 
case  of  the  body  of  Jezebel,  which  was  said  to  have  been  unidentifiable, 
precisely  those  remains  were  left,  and  only  those,  upon  which  an  absolute 
identification  could  be  based. 

It  is  to  be  also  noted  that  it  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  have  large 
portions  of  a  body,  entire  bones,  or  large  areas  of  friction  skin,  but  that 
to  the  trained  observer  often  a  mere  fragment  may  furnish  definite  and 
valuable  information.  One  of  the  most  important  sources  of  information 
for  the  archeologist  is  found  in  the  "kitchen  middings,"  or  refuse  heaps, 
left  by  prehistoric  peoples,  and  consisting  of  bone  fragments  of  the 
animals  eaten,  shells  of  molluscs,  broken  pieces  of  pottery,  and  occasionally 
a  lost  implement  of  stone  or  bronze.  From  these,  numerous  details  of 
the  life  and  living  can  be  obtained,  so  that  an  almost  complete  picture  of 
prehistoric  times  may  be  reconstructed;  yet  the  work  involves  the  determi- 
nation of  countless  small  pieces  of  poorly  preserved  bone  and  includes  not 
only  the  determination  of  each  bone  as  to  position  in  the  skeleton,  but  the 
particular  species  of  animal  from  which  it  was  derived. 

After  long  experience  with  this  sort  of  work,  a  determination  involving 
human  bones  alone  becomes  a  comparatively  simple  problem,  and  in  some 
cases  both  age  and  sex  can  be  estimated  with  a  fair  amount  of  certainty 
in  a  fragment  that  would  convey  absolutely  no  meaning  to  the  untrained. 
In  an  important  case  one  must  not  overlook  the  smallest  fragment, 
as  even  the  "ashes"  from  the  crematory  may  possibly  yield  important 
information. 

While  it  is  utterly  impossible  in  one  short  chapter  to  present  an  ex- 
haustive treatise  on  the  subject,  it  is  yet  possible  to  explain  the  general 
principles  involved  in  the  more  usual  cases.  It  may  here  be  emphasized 
that  expert  testimony  in  this  field,  as  in  all  others,  should  be  capable  of  a 
full  and  simple  explanation,  easily  comprehended  by  the  "man  in  the 
street,"  and  that  all  general  impressions  the  basis  for  which  the  examiner 
cannot  explain,  as  well  as  all  technical  language  which  cannot  be  simplified, 
should  be  discounted. 

I.  Identification  of  Remains  from  Friction  Skin.  This  is  the  technical 
'Gallon;  Publ.  by  MacMillan,  London,  1892,  p.  113. 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth  75 

name  of  the  ridged  skin  that  covers  the  "under"  or  palmar  surface  of  the 
hand  and  fingers,  and  the  "under"  or  plantar  surface  of  the  foot,  with 
the  toes.  Its  main  peculiarity  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  is  made  up  of 
fine  ridges  (not  the  wrinkles),  which  run  over  the  general  surface  in  approxi- 
mately parallel  courses,  but  at  certain  definite  points  form  complicated 
loops,  whorls,  spirals,  and  the  like,  known  as  patterns.  As  every  part  of 
this  friction  skin  is  covered  by  these  ridges,  and  as  the  ridges  themselves 
are  not  always  continuous  lines  but  are  characterized  by  repeatedly  break- 
ing, forking,  or  splitting  in  a  most  irregular  and  individual  manner,  and 
furthermore  as  these  features  remain  absolutely  constant  throughout  the 
entire  life,  and  are  far  too  complicated  to  make  a  duplication  of  even  a 
single  ridge  probable,  it  naturally  follows  that  a  small  area  of  friction 
skin,  no  matter  where  taken,  is  sufficient  for  an  absolute  and  positive  identi- 
fication, provided  only  that  a  record  of  it  in  the  form  of  a  "print,"  or  some 
other  form  of  accurate  reproduction,  has  been  previously  made  and  is  available 
for  comparison. 

Now  it  happens  that  these  very  surfaces,  covered  by  their  characteris- 
tic ridges,  are  for  several  reasons  the  most  likely  to  survive  of  any  part  of 
the  body  surface.  In  the  first  place,  the  ridges  are  covered  with  a  thick 
epidermis  that  is  naturally  more  hornlike  than  that  found  elsewhere,  and 
is  thus  more  resistent  to  the  action  of  decay;  in  the  second  place,  the  feet 
are  usually  encased  in  shoes,  which  offer  their  protection;  while  again  the 
hands  are  often  clenched  or  left  clinging  to  some  external  object  or  to 
the  sides  of  the  body,  so  that  these  important  surfaces  are  shielded  from 
injury.  It  may  thus  easily  happen  that  in  a  charred  or  drowned  body 
the  face  may  be  unrecognizable  or  reduced  to  the  bone,  while  portions  of 
the  friction  skin  of  hands  or  feet  or  both  still  remain.  In  all  such  cases, 
where  previous  records  are  available,  a  positive  identification  is  possible. 

Although  as  yet,  out  of  the  whole  palmar  and  plantar  surfaces  of 
the  hands  and  feet  only  that  part  is  as  yet  utilized  which  covers  the  ter- 
minal joints  of  the  fingers,  some  very  remarkable  identifications  have 
already  been  made,  although  the  area  obtainable  was  extremely  small. 
Thus,  in  December,  1911,  the  body  of  a  man  was  found  floating  in  San 
Francisco  Bay.  It  had  been  in  the  water  for  some  length  of  time  and  the 
flesh  was  almost  gone.  The  only  clue  was  that  it  was  in  the  uniform  of  a 
"bluejacket."  Now  the  United  States  Government  takes  the  finger- 
prints of  all  enlisted  men,  including  the  Army,  the  Navy,  and  the  Marine 
Corps,  and  if  imprints  from  a  member  of  either  of  these  bodies  are  submitted 
to  the  Department  an  identification  can  be  made.  Although  the  fingers 
of  this  floating  body  were  almost  stripped,  the  naval  surgeon  who  examined 
the  body  found  a  small  strip  of  the  pattern  of  the  right  index  finger,  and 
so  skillfully  manipulated  it  that  he  obtained  a  print,  from  which  he  could 
ascertain  that  the  pattern  was  an  arch.  From  others  of  the  fingers  he 


76 


Personal  Identification 


obtained  slight  smears,  and  as  a  forlorn  hope,  sent  the  whole  to  Washington. 
The  expert  of  the  Navy  Department  there  went  to  the  files,  containing  the 
finger  impressions  of  over  150,000  bluejackets,  and  after  an  hour's  search 
identified  the  dead  man  as  a  coal  passer,  who  had  been  missing  for  about 


R&ft. 


FIGURE  13.  Diagram  showing  the  more  usual 
hair  currents  upon  the  front  or  ventral  aspect  of  the 
trunk.  (After  Kidd.) 

a  month.     The  mark  of  desertion  was  expunged  from  his  record,  and  a 
sum  of  money  due  him  was  paid  to  his  next  of  kin. 

As  the  second  part  of  this  work  is  wholly  taken  up  with  the  various 
phases  of  friction-skin  identification,  and  especially  with  the  patterns  on 
the  balls  of  the  fingers,  to  which  most  of  the  attention  has  hitherto  been 
directed,  the  subject  need  not  be  treated  further  in  this  place,  and  the 
reader  is  referred  there  for  details.  It  will  be  found  there  advocated, 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth 


77 


(p.  185)  that  in  view  of  the  contingencies  of  life  and^the  many  instances 
where  a  positive  identification  by  the  usual  methods  is  difficult  or  impos- 
sible, a  system  of  palm  and  sole  records,  including  the  finger  prints, 
and  applied  to  all  citizens,  be  inaugurated,  and^that  these  records  be  kept 


P. 


FIGURE  14.  Diagram  showing  the  more  usual 
hair  currents  upon  the  back  or  dorsal  aspect  of  the 
trunk.  (After  Kidd.) 

suitably  classified,  in  Identification  Bureaus,  one  for  each  city,  county, 
or  community  of  convenient  size.  In  all  civilized  countries  every  parcel 
of  land  is  recorded,  with  all  of  its  transfers;  would  it  not  be  of  equal  value 
to  record  the  people? 

II.  Identification  of  Remains  from  the  Hair  Direction.  If  the  reader 
will  look  over  the  surface  of  a  horse,  bulldog,  or  other  sleek,  short-haired 
animal,  he  will  see  that  the  hair  over  a  given  area  runs  in  a  certain 


78  Personal  Identification 


definite  direction,  either  spreading  out  (divergent),  coming  together 
(convergent)  or  parallel;  furthermore,  that  in  places  there  are  seen  special 
hair  features,  such  as  slightly  raised  lines  where  two  opposing  currents 
come  together.  This  is  technically  called  the  Hair  Direction,  The  surface 
of  the  human  body  is  not  hairless,  as  we  like  to  think,  but  in  the  white 
race,  at  least,  is  often  conspicuously  covered,  at  least  in  places,  and  there 
are  not  only  great  differences  between  individuals  in  the  amount  of  hairi- 
ness, and  the  places  which  are  particularly  so,  but  there  is  also  a  hair 
direction,  as  definite,  though  not  always  as  conspicuous,  as  in  the  animals 
above  mentioned.  This  is  as  true  of  females  as  of  males,  although  in  the 
former  the  hairs  usually  remain  short  and  lie  close  to  the  skin,  yet  for  this 
very  reason  the  hair  direction  is  frequently  more  easily  ascertained  in 
the  female  than  in  the  male,  where  the  hair  is  usually  long  and  curly,  and 
matted  together.  The  hair  direction  is  particularly  easily  studied  in 
individuals  of  either  sex  with  a  sallow,  white  complexion  and  with  black 
hair,  and  is  much  obscured  in  the  more  hairy. 

In  the  study  of  hair  direction,  of  either  man  or  the  lower  animals, 
Aside  from  the  broad  areas,  which  show  merely  a  hair  current  running 
in  one  direction,  there  are  the  following  special  features,  which  are  some- 
times very  conspicuous : 

1.  Whorl  or  Vortex.     A  typical  vortex  is  seen  in  the  crown  of  the 
head,  especially  conspicuous,  and  conveniently  observed  in  small  boys 
with  close-cropped  hair.     Vortices  are  of  two  kinds,  right-handed  (clock- 
~wise),  and  left-handed  (contra-clockwise)  and  while  a  given  type  remains 
unalterable  throughout  life,  two  separate  individuals,  or  even  two  brothers 
in  the  same  family,  may  show  the  two  types.     A  vortex  is  often  present 
on  the  angle  of  the  jaw,  back  of  the  cheek,  and  shows  conspicuously  in 
black-haired  men  that  have  been  recently  shaved.     Paired  vortices  are 
also  to  be  looked  for  upon  the  front  aspect  of  the  body,  halfway  between 
the  nipple  and  the  shoulder,  and  again  at  the  level  of  the  navel,  halfway 
out  to  the  side. 

2.  Rhomboid.     This  is  a  little  four-cornered  bare  area,  formed  by 
the  edges  of  four  areas,  that  is,  two  divergent  areas  meeting  two  convergent 
ones.     The  area  thus  left  between  the  four  is  a  rhomboid,  having  when 
clearly  marked  the  exact  form  of  the  ace  of  diamonds.     A  rhomboid  occurs 
with  practical  constancy  on  the  outer  margin  of  the  forearm,  near  the 
wrist,  and  is  often  a  conspicuous  object  in  a  man  facing  the  observer,  and 
resting  with  the  elbow  on  the  table  and  his  face  on  his  hand.     A  rhomboid 
is  also  to  be  looked  for  in  the  mid-line  of  the  chest,  below  the  sternal  notch 
.(fork),  and  on  the  line  connecting  the  two  lateral  vortices  above  mentioned. 

3.  Crest.     This  is  a  line,  or  ridge,  formed  along  the  common  boundary 
of  two  hair  streams  that  converge  gently  toward  each  other.     It  is  the 
.opposite  of  a 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Banes  and  Teeth  79 

4.  Parting,  which  is  too  well  known  to  describe.  Sometimes  made 
artificially  with  a  comb  where  Nature  never  intended  to  have  one,  natural 
partings  also  exist  in  other  regions.  They  are  formed  along  the  boundaries 
of  two  diverging  currents. 

There  are  some  other  features  found  in  the  study  of  hair  direction, 
but  the  ones  given  are  the  essential  ones.  Upon  the  broad  chest  of  a 
bulldog  may  usually  be  seen  whorls,  rhomboids,  crests,  and  partings,  all 
within  a  restricted  area,  and  with  his  short,  smooth  coat,  this  animal 
furnishes  an  excellent  object  of  study. 

Were  we  accustomed  to  expose  more  of  the  body  during  the  usual 
daily  routine,  our  friends  and  associates,  or  at  least  one's  own  family, 
would  become  so  familiar  with  individual  hair  peculiarities,  that  the  studv 
of  the  hair  direction  would  become  an  important  branch  of  research  for 
the  identifier.  Even  as  it  is,  cases  are  known,  notably  the  Webster- 
Parkman  case,  in  which  the  identification  of  remains,  in  this  case  that  of 
a  dismembered  fragment,  was  made  through  a  peculiar  disposition  of  the 
hair  on  the  pelvic  region,  known  to  certain  members  of  the  family. 

III.  Dessicated  Remains;  Dried  Skin.  Occasionally,  even  after 
long  burial,  where  the  conditions  are  favorable  to  dessication,  human 
remains  may  be  found  dried,  so  that  not  only  ligaments  and  tendons  remain 
but  even  portions  of  the  skin.  These  sometimes  include  a  hand,  a  foot, 
or  one  or  more  fingers,  so  that  essential  data  may  still  be  present  but,  in 
their  shrunken  condition,  difficult  or  impossible  to  study. 

These  parts,  including  more  or  less  friction  skin,  are  naturally  found 
in  embalmed  mummies,  like  those  of  Egypt  and  Peru,  and  are  especially 
well  preserved  in  the  sun-dried  type  found  in  the  caves  of  Southern  Utah; 
it  is  probable,  too,  that  the  work  of  our  modern  embalmers  will,  when 
placed  under  favorable  conditions,  have  a  similar  lasting  quality.  In 
Certain  kinds  of  places,  such  as  the  higher  levels  of  a  sandy  elevation, 
where  the  water  drains  through  quickly  and  does  not  stand,  there  is  usually 
more  or  less  drying  before  decay  becomes  far  advanced,  and  a  part  once 
properly  dried,  and  kept  in  a  dry  place,  may  last  for  centuries.  Thus 
in  1913,  in  Warren,  Rhode  Island,  upward  of  60  Indian  graves  were  opened 
up,  dating  from  the  Trade  Period  of  the  American  colonies,  1625-1675. 
The  graves  were  at  the  top  of  a  dry,  sandy  hill,  where  water  would  not 
collect,  and  in  several  instances  not  only  the  bones,  but  pieces  of  dried 
skin,  were  found  intact.  The  skin  was,  however,  usually  found  covered 
with  red  paint,  a  common  practice  of  the  aborigines  in  that  region,  and  this 
may  have  had  a  preservative  effect.  In  some  cases,  too,  where  parts  of 
the  body  had  been  placed  in  contact  with  copper  kettles,  and  other  copper 
utensils,  the  parts  were  found  colored  green  and  preserved  by  the  action 
of  the  copper  salts.  This  case,  although  of  little  direct  application  to 
present-day  problems,  is  nevertheless  extremely  valuable  in  suggesting 


80 


Personal  Identification 


possibilities.  Another  instance  of  preservation  through  the  chance  intro- 
duction of  copper  under  more  modern  conditions  was  seen  by  one  of  us  in 
excavating  an  Indian  cemetery  in  Charlestown,  Rhode  Island,  where  the 
interments  were  in  Christian  form,  with  coffins,  and  dated  between  1750 
and  1840.  In  several  cases,  where  pins  had  been  used  about  the  head, 
the  pins  were  found  upon  the  surface  of  the  skull,  with  patches  of  hair 
preserved  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  while  elsewhere  it  had  entirely  disap- 
peared. 

In  bodies  left  in  dry  woods,  or  hastily  buried  in  the  sand,  the  skin  is 


FIGURE  15.  Sun-dried  "mummy"  of 
one  of  the  prehistoric  Cliff-dwellers, 
just  as  it  was  found  in  a  cliff  ruin  in  south- 
ern Utah. 


FIGURE  16.  Sams  as  Figure  15,  "re- 
stored" through  the  action  of  a  weak  solu- 
tion of  caustic  potash.  (See  American 
Anthropologist,  Vol.  6,  1904.) 


very  likely  to  resist  decay,  especially  that  of  the  hands  and  feet,  where 
the  underlying  parts  are  mainly  of  bones  and  tendons,  and  here  too,  as  in 
all  instances  of  drying,  the  parts  are  left  hard  and  shrunken,  and  difficult 
of  examination.  In  all  such  cases,  wherever  dried  parts  are  to  be  investi- 
gated, they  may  be  restored  to  practically  their  natural  form  by  simply 
immersing  them  in  a  1-3  per  cent  solution  of  caustic  potash  (K-OH), 
and  allowing  them  to  remain  until  they  have  swollen  out  to  apparently 
their  normal  fullness,  after  which  they  should  be  immersed  in  water  for 
a  short  time,  and  then  placed  for  final  preservation  in  weak  alcohol  or  a 
solution  of  formalin.  When  in  the  potash  they  should  be  watched  from 
time  to  time,  but  a  fairly  large  piece,  like  a  hand  or  a  foot,  might  remain 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth  81 

over  night  without  harm.  In  general,  three  to  twelve  hours  should  be 
sufficient.  The  effect  of  the  immersion  in  water  after  the  potash  seems 
to  be  to  cause  a  little  more  swelling,  and  fill  up  places  which  the  potash  has 
not  affected,  yet  this  very  action  may  become  dangerous  if  allowed  to 
continue  too  long,  and  at  the  first  signs  of  bursting  or  disintegration  the 
piece  should  be  brought  into  the  alcohol  or  formalin.  This  checks  at 
once  any  further  action,  and  preserves  the  part  indefinitely.  After  this 
the  part  may  be  studied  at  any  time,  but  must  be  handled  in  a  pan  of 
water,  or  must  at  least  be  kept  moist,  and  finally  returned  to  the  preser- 
vative. The  alcohol  solution  should  be  about  half-strength,  that  is,  one 
volume  each  of  ethyl  alcohoj  (not  denatured)  and  water;  the  formalin 
should  be  about  a  5  per  cent  solution  (roughly,  one  part  of  the  commercial 
formalin  in  20  parts  of  water). 

The  advantage  of  thus  treating  a  piece  of  friction  skin  is  obvious, 
provided  only  that  prints  of  the  one  likely  to  be  identified  are  available; 
otherwise  it  has  no  value  in  this  connection.  There  is  also  the  possibility 
of  finding  moles,  scars,  or  tattoo  marks  upon  such  "restored"  parts;  a  body 
or  part  of  a  body  may  also  be  dissected  after  this  treatment,  and  any  known 
pathological  defect  searched  for;  and  in  some  cases  a  disease  may  be 
diagnosed.  Two  dried  bodies  of  Utah  cliff  dwellers,  several  hundred 
years  old,  were  thus  treated  by  one  of.  the  authors.  The  friction-skin 
patterns  on  hand  and  foot  were  practically  as  distinct  as  in  life;  and  both 
bodies  were  quite  satisfactorily  dissected,  and  several  points  noted.* 

The  possibilities  of  microscopic  diagnosis  in  an  embalmed  body,  or 
in  a  dried  part  after  treatment  with  potash,  are  very  great.  When  Gen. 
Horace  Porter,  in  1905,  excavated  the  embalmed  body  of  John  Paul  Jones 
from  beneath  a  street  in  Paris,  for  interment  at  Annapolis,  the  French 
pathologist,  M.  Papillaut,  investigated  the  body,  to  make  certain  the  iden- 
tification. Among  other  things,  he  found  calcified  tubules  in  the  kidneys, 
proving  the  disease  of  those  organs  from  which  he  was  known  to  have  died. 
Similarly  the  embalmed  right  thumb  of  a  Peruvian  mummy,  restored  by 
the  potash  method,  showed  to  one  of, the  authors  by  a  microscopic  test 
a  case  of  miliary  fever,  a  disease  which  covers  the  skin  with  minute 
pustules,  and  here  evidently  the  fatal  illness  of  the  subject,  who  had  died 
before  the  visit  of  Columbus. 

IV.  The  Bones.  Even  in  badly  mutilated  remains,  or  after  long 
burial,  there  are  usually  found  some  or  all  of  the  bones  capable  of  yield- 
ing important  data.  The  skull,  with  the  teeth,  is  naturally  the  most 
valuable  part  of  the  skeleton,  but  there  is  no  bone  which  can  give  no  in- 

*For  the  details  of  this  investigation,  together  with  more  explicit  directions  con- 
cerning the  method,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  original  paper:  Wilder,  H.  H.  The 
Restoration  of  Dried  Tissues,  with  especial  Reference  to  Human  Remains,  in  American 
Anthropologist,  Vol.  6,  1904,  pp.  1-17. 


82  Personal  Identification 


formation  to  the  scientific  investigator.  From  the  bones  alone  can  be 
determined  the  stature  and  proportions,  the  approximate  age,  and  usually 
the  sex.  Diseases  affecting  the  bones,  either  active  at  the  time  of  death, 
or  present  at  any  time  during  life;  all  deformities  involving  the  bones; 
and  all  injuries  to  bony  parts  are  permanently  recorded  on  the  skeleton. 
It  is  even  possible  that  with  increased  knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  with 
the  invention  of  suitable  instruments  to  record  the  shapes  and  geometrical 
relationships  of  the  articular  surfaces  of  the  joints,  it  will  sometime  be 
possible  to  ascertain  individual  peculiarities  of  pose  or  motion,  such  as 
toeing  out,  left-handedness,  or  manner  of  carrying  the  head. 

For  a  careful  and  detailed  study  of  the  skeleton  in  respect  to  bodily 
characters  the  bones  must  be  reasonably  clean,  and  it  is  recommended, 
after  every  possible  scrap  of  information  has  been  derived  from  the  soft 
parts,  to  have  the  bones  prepared  for  study  in  the  usual  way.  They  are 
then  in  condition  to  be  investigated  for  the  following  data : 

(a)  Sex.  Naturally  the  sex  of  a  given  body  can  be  usually  deter- 
mined from  the  soft  parts,  even  if  badly  mutilated,  since  certain  of  the 
deepest  lying  internal  organs  may  be  used  for  this  purpose  when  all  the 
superficial  parts  are  gone.  Yet,  where  the  bones  alone  remain,  as  after 
long  interment,  or  even  where  only  a  few  bones  are  present,  the  records  of 
the  sex  are  not  entirely  lost,  provided  the  extant  bones  consist  of  the 
proper  parts  for  such  a  determination. 

The  bones  most  useful  for  a  sex  determination  are  (1)  the  skull,  (2) 
the  hip-bones,  (ossa  innominata)  and  (3)  the  sacrum.  Any  one  of  these 
will  in  most  cases  furnish  a  fair  amount  of  certainty  regarding  sex,  but 
where  all  are  gone,  no  one  would  venture  to  give  more  than  a  guess,  relying 
upon  the  size  and  proportions  of  the  bones. 

The  most  conspicuous  male  character  in  the  skull  is  found  in  the 
prominent  superciliary  (or  eyebrow)  ridges,  in  the  form  of  rounded,  slightly 
roughened,  areas,  that  lie  above  the  inner,  upper  corner  of  the  orbits, 
often  nearly  in  contact  in  the  median  line.  Seen  in  different  lights  these 
often  form  a  striking  character,  and  give  to  the  entire  region  above  the 
nose  and  between  the  eyebrows  a  decided  fullness,  above  which,  in  contrast, 
the  forehead  profile  appears  hollowed  out  and  retreating.  In  the  female 
skull,  on  the  other  hand,  this  region  is  flat;  the  superciliary  ridges  are  in- 
conspicuous, and  the  forehead  profile  above  this  region  is  full  and  often 
bulging,  as  in  a  child.  The  male  jaw  is  usually  broader  and  heavier,  and 
the  teeth  are  more  massive.  As  in  the  rest  of  the  skeleton  the  prominences 
to  which  muscles  are  attached  during  life  are  heavier  and  more  strongly 
developed  in  the  male,  and  this  effect  is  seen  in  the  back  of  the  skull,  where 
are  found  the  median  occipital  protuberance,  the  superior  curved  lines,  and 
the  mastoid  processes.  To  these  prominences  are  attached  the  strong 
muscles  of  the  back  and  sides  of  the  neck,  which  hold  up  the  head,  and 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth  83 

as  the  male  head  averages  larger  and  heavier  than  that  of  the  female, 
these  muscles  in  the  male  have  a  harder  task,  which  develops  both  the 
muscles  themselves  and  the  processes  of  the  skull  to  which  they  are  at- 
tached. This  difference  is  especially  noticeable  in  the  mastoid  processes, 
which  are  longer  and  more  robust  in  the  male. 

It  will  be  seen  that  no  one  of  these  characters  shows  an  absolute 
difference  in  the  two  sexes,  but  depends  upon  comparison,  the  male  in 
every  way  showing  the  stronger  and  heavier  characters,  and  the  female 
the  softer  and  less  developed  ones.  These  characteristic  differences  are 
not  seen  in  the  skulls  of  children,  and  it  is  noticeable  that  it  is  the  male 
which,  in  maturity,  develops  the  differences,  and  hence  grows  away  from 
the  common  type  from  which  both  sexes  begin,  while  the  female,  not  de- 
veloping these  differential  characters,  retains  more  the  childlike  characters. 
As  in  all  cases  where  differences  are  those  of  degree  merely,  a  long 
familiarity  with  the  work  is  necessary  to  a  reliable  diagnosis,  but  in  most 
skulls  the  sum  total  of  the  characters  gives  the  expert  sufficient  basis  for 
a  fairly  reliable  decision. 

The  hip-bones,  taken  with  the  sacrum,  to  which  they  are  attached, 
and  with  which  they  form  the  hip-girdle,  a  frame  that  fits  about  the  entire 
trunk,  are  the  best  parts  for  a  sex  diagnosis,  but  even  here  the  differences 
are  not  absolute,  and  appear  strongly  marked  only  in  the  adult.  When 
all  three  bones  are  present  (the  two  hip-bones  and  the  sacrum),  so  that 
they  can  be  fitted  together  in  their  original  position,  the  surest  point 
for  sex  diagnosis  is  the  sub-pubic  angle,  a  median  angle  with  apex  up,  placed 
below  the  pubic  arch,  and  framing  in  the  outlet  for  the  pelvic  organs. 
In  the  female  this  angle  is  widely  open  while  in  the  male  it  is  narrow  and 
pointed.  As  this  angle  differs  widely  individually,  the  matter  cannot  be 
brought  down  to  definite  measurements,  but  it  takes  comparatively  little 
experience  to  detect  the  difference  rather  quickly  in  typical  cases.  In 
males  the  angle  can  be  as  narrow  as  38°,  while  in  the  female  an  angle  of 
104°  has  been  recorded,  but  the  usual  cases  are  not  nearly  as  extreme. 
There  seem  to  be  also  racial  differences,*  and  the  figures -presented  by  differ- 
ent anthropologists,  even  among  related  peoples,  differ  somewhat. 
According  to  the  most  recent  authorities  the  range  of  difference  to  expect 
in  males  of  the  white  race  is  about  40°  to  80°,  and  in  females  60°  to  100°. 
The  average  for  males  is  60°,  and  for  females  74°. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  pelvic  girdle  of  the  female  is  broad  laterally, 
and  that  of  the  male  is  narrow;  the  iliac  portions  of  the  hip-bones  are 
broad  and  hollow  in  the  female,  and  narrow  and  flat  in  the  male;  the  sacrum 
is  broader  and  more  concave  in  the  female.  These  differences  are  usually 
so  pronounced  that  they  are  easily  noticeable  in  a  single  hip-bone,  or  in  a 
detached  sacrum. 

Summarizing,  then,  the  sex  diagnosis  of  a  skeleton,  the  differences 


84 


Personal  Identification 


must  be  recognized  as  relative  rather  than  absolute,  as  differing  markedly 
in  different  individuals;,  and  in  not  becoming  noticeable  before  adult  life. 
When  pronounced  sex  characters  are  present  in  all  the  bones  here  men- 
tioned, skull,  hip-bones,  and  sacrum,  the  examiner  is  warranted  in  de- 
claring the  sex  as  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt;  when,  however,  they  are 
not  pronounced  in  any  of  the  bones,  or  where  the  evidence  of  the  different 
bones  is  conflicting,  the  determination  must  be  treated  as  uncertain. 
Some  women  are  masculine  in  external  appearance,  and  some  men  are 
more  or  less  feminine;  in  the  same  way  the  sex  characters  are  often  not 
pronounced  in  the  skeletal  parts;  still,  in  the  majority  of  cases  an  an- 


Sacrum  of  Man 
Long,  narrow,  concave 


pubic 
angle 

FIGURE   17.     Sexual  differences  in  the  bones  of  the  hip  region. 
tion  in  the  text. 


Sacrum  of  Woman 
Short,  broad,  flat 


Further  explana- 


thropologist  who  has  had  long  practice  in  "sexing"  skeletons,  can  render 
a  decision  amounting  to  almost  a  certainty. 

(b)  Age.  The  separate  bones  of  the  skeleton,  during  development, 
run  through  a  long  and  complicated  history.  With  the  exception  of  some 
of  the  bones  of  the  skull,  and  the  clavicle  (collar  bone)  each  piece  is  formed 
first  of  cartilage,  and  this  yielding  and  elastic  substance  is  gradually  re- 
placed by  the  more  rigid  bone,  the  process  not  being  complete  until  the 
age  of  twenty-five  or  even  older.  This  change  is  in  itself  far  from  simple, 
since  the  growth  of  bone  usually  takes  place  at  several  points,  the  centers 
of  ossification,  which  begin  their  development  at  different  times,  and  when, 
finally,  the  cartilage  between  two  growing  centers  becomes  entirely  re- 
placed and  the  pieces  are  in  contact,  a  long  time  may  elapse  before  they 
entirely  fuse  with  each  other. 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth  85 

While,  now,  certain  of  the  early  stages  in  the  development  of  a  given 
bone  are  passed  in  the  embryo,  the  rest  of  the  history  extends  over  some 
twenty -five  years;  and  as  so  many  events  in  this  history  occur  during 
that  time,  such  as  the  appearance  of  a  new  center,  the  completion  of  the 
ossification  of  a  center,  the  fusion  of  two  elements,  and  so  on,  and  as  each 
of  these  has  a  certain  average  age  at  which  to  appear,  the  age  of  a  per- 
son under  twenty-five  may  be  quite  definitely  calculated  from  the  skeleton, 
or  even,  occasionally,  from  a  single  bone. 

To  explain  by  an  illustration:  the  scapula,  or  shoulder-blade,  of  the 
new-born  infant  consists  of  a  single  piece  of  bone,  flat  and  triangular  in 
shape,  and  bearing  upon  its  dorsal  (rear)  surface  a  ridge  or  spine.  Around 
the  edges  of  this  the  characteristic  shape  of  the  scapula  is  built  out  by 
cartilage,  which  shows,  among  other  parts,  the  acromion  and  coracoid 
processes,  still  without  trace  of  bone.  During  the  first  year  of  life  a 
center  of  ossification  appears  in  the  cartilaginous  coracoid  process.  This 
increases  until  the  part  becomes  wholly  osseous  but  does  not  fuse  with 
the  main  bone  until  the  age  of  14  or  15.  The  acromion  remains  carti- 
laginous until  the  15th  year,  when  many  little  nuclei  of  bone  appear. 
These  unite  with  one  another,  and  with  the  main  piece,  in  a  complicated 
fashion,  but  the  individual  is  20  to  25  years  old  before  the  process  is  com- 
plete, and  the  acromion  is  wholly  ossified  and  firmly  joined  to  the  main 
part.  Finally  the  thin  cartilaginous  edge  along  the  medial  (vertebral) 
border  develops  ossifications  between  the  16th  and  18th  years,  which 
remain  distinct  for  a  time  and  do  not  unite  with  the  rest  until  the  age  of 
about  25. 

Here,  then,  is  a  long  series  of  events,  extended  along  through  the  first 
twenty-five  years  of  life,  each  occurring  at  a  fairly  definite  age.  Such 
striking  events  as  the  fusion  of  the  coracoid  at  14,  the  appearance  of  ossi- 
fication in  the  acromion  at  15,  and  along  the  medial  edge  between  16  and  18, 
and  the  final  completion  of  the  bone,  as  known  in  the  adult,  at  25,  give 
definite  age  limits  to  a  bone  showing  such  characters,  and  these,  with  the 
assistance  of  other  bones,  the  events  in  the  development  of  which  come 
at  different  periods,  will  serve  to  determine  the  age  of  an  individual  before 
the  final  adult  period.  Furthermore  these  characteristics  are  exceedingly 
plain  and  conspicuous,  and  may  be  seen  in  a  fragment  as  well  as  in  an 
entire  bone.  An  age  diagnosis,  then,  apart  from  the  material  available, 
is  mainly  a  question  of  knowledge  and  ability  on  the  part  of  the  examiner; 
knowledge  of  the  details  of  bone  development,  extended  to  every  bone 
of  the  skeleton,  and  the  ability  to  recognize,  not  only  an  entire  bone,  but 
even  a  small  fragment  in  a  poor  condition. 

The  most  striking  difference  between  the  skeleton  of  a  young  person 
and  that  of  an  adult  is  that  seen  in  the  so-called  "long  bones,"  that  is, 
bones  which  are  cylindrical  in  shape,  and  long  in  proportion  to  their  caliber. 


86 


Personal  Identification 


Most  of  the  bones  of  the  arm  and  leg,  including  finger  and  toe  bones,  are 
in  this  sense  long  bones,  while  no  long  bones,  except,  perhaps,  the  clavicle 
(collar  bone),  are  met  with  in  either  head,  neck,  or  trunk.  With  some 
slight  exceptions  a  long  bone,  of  whatever  size,  develops  in  three  parts, 
a  shaft  and  two  ends,  technically  diaphysis  and  the  two  epiphyses,  and  as 
extension  in  length  depends  upon  addition  of  bone  substance  at  the  ends 
of  the  shaft,  it  is  clear  that  the  ends  cannot  fuse  with  the  shaft  until  the 
full  size  is  reached.  In  some  reptiles,  like  the  alligator,  the  shaft  and  ends 
never  fuse,  and  thus  each  long  bone,  and  also  the  whole  animal,  continues 
to  grow  as  long  as  it  lives;  but  in  man  there  comes  a  time,  between  about 
17  and  23,  when  the  end  pieces  of  the  long  bones,  the  epiphyses  of  the  anat- 


Promixal  epiphysis 
or  end  piece 


Distal  epiphys's 
or  end  piece 

FIGURE  18.  The  bone  of  the  upper  arm  (humerus)  of  a  child,  showing  its  com- 
position from  three  pieces;  the  shaft  and  the  two  epiphyses,  or  ends.  Growth  in  length 
is  possible  only  so  long  as  these  parts  remain  separate.  When  fully  grown  the  ends 
become  fused  with  the  shaft.  This  is  true  of  all  the  long  bones  of  the  body,  i.e.,  those 
similarly  shaped,  including  the  bones  of  the  arm  and  leg,  and  those  of  the  hands,  feet, 
fingers  and  toes,  except  the  bones  of  the  wrist  and  ankle.  The  condition  of  these  bones 
gives  a  rough  criterion  of  the  age  of  a  skeleton  or  of  a  single  bone. 


omists,  which  fit  like  caps  over  the  ends  of  the  shafts,  become  so  firmly 
fused  to  the  latter  that  no  further  additions  are  possible,  and  the  individual 
is  said  to  have  "got  his  growth."  One  can  tell,  then,  an  adult  long  bone 
from  an  immature  one  by  the  condition  of  the  epiphyses,  and  after  some 
little  experience,  can  make  some  estimate  concerning  the  age  of  the  latter 
by  the  degree  of  the  attachment  between  the  parts. 

Other  convenient  age  criteria  are  here  shown  in  list  form,  but  naturally 
some  knowledge  of  bones  is  required  in  order  to  apply  them.  The  last 
one  on  the  list  is  the  very  last  developmental  change  that  takes  place  in 
the  skeleton,  and  a  complete  fusion  here  marks  a  man  as  mature. 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth  87 

1.  Coracoid  process  of  the  scapula.  Fuses  with  the  main  bone  at  puberty. 

2.  Sphenoid  and  occipital,  at  base  of  skull.  Fuse  at  16th  year. 

3.  The  three  parts  of  the  os  innominatum.  Fuse  by  the  18th-20th  year. 

4.  The  free  upper  margin  of  the  ilium  This  is  finished  off  by  a  thin  strip  that 

(hip-bone).  runs  along  the  free  edge.     Fusion  with 

the  main  part  complete  by  the  25th- 
28th  year. 

If  the  examination  concerns  an  infant  or  little  child  before  the  age 
of  8-10,  there  is  such  an  abundance  of  data,  from  both  bones  and  teeth, 
that  a  fairly  reliable  verdict  can  be  made  down  to  the  year,  and,  during 
the  first  year,  down  almost  to  the  month.  For  this,  the  best  part  to 
examine  would  be  the  skull,  without  which,  indeed,  a  determination 
could  be  only  approximate. 

When  teeth  are  present  they  give  a  simpler  age  record  than  do  the 
.  bones,  and  while  often  a  special  examiner  is  necessary  for  the  interpretation 
of  the  latter,  any  good  dentist  can  give  fairly  accurate  estimates  from  the 
condition  of  the  teeth.  Taking  into  account  the  twenty  teeth  of  the  first 
set,  and  the  thirty-two  of  the  second,  in  both  of  which  the  eruption  of 
new  teeth  occurs  successively  and  not  simultaneously,  and  considering 
that  the  first  of  the  permanent  teeth  begin  to  appear  soon  after  the  erup- 
tion of  the  last  of  the  first  set,  we  see  that  the  teething  process  consists 
of  a  long  series  of  events  extending  over  the  entire  period  from  birth  to 
maturity;  presenting  a  convenient  and  exact  method  of  determining  the 
age  of  an  individual.  Incidentally  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  the  teeth 
are  available  in  the  living  subject  or  in  an  undissected  one,  and  may  thus 
be  useful  in  cases  where  a  determination  from  the  bones  is  not  pos- 
sible. 

One  must  bear  in  mind,  however,  in  all  data  resting  upon  develop- 
ment, whether  of  bones  or  teeth,  that  the  dates  for  the  events  show  some 
individual  variation,  in  certain  cases  a  considerable  one,  so  that  an  age 
thus  determined  can  be  only  approximate.  An  extreme  instance  of  this 
is  seen  in  the  third  molars,  or  "wisdom-teeth,"  which  have  a  normal 
range  between  the  18th  and  the  28th  years,  but  may  appear  a  year  or 
two  earlier,  or  may  be  delayed  into  middle  life.  Here  this  great  variability 
is  connected  with  the  vestigial  character  of  the  teeth  themselves,  that  is, 
organs  which  were  once  of  considerable  importance,  but  are  now  in  process 
of  disappearance.  Such  parts  are  always  extremely  variable  in  every  way, 
and  neither  in  their  form,  size,  nor  development  do  they  keep  up  to  as 
definite  a  standard  as  in  the  case  of  functionally  active  parts,  having  an 
important  function  to  perform. 

After  the  age  of  twenty-five,  along  through  middle  life,  age  data  are 
not  definite,  and  little  can  be  done  with  a  skeleton  other  than  to  place 
it  within  these  limits.  But,  with  the  appearance  of  senile  changes,  several 


ss 


Personal  Identification 


characters  appear   that  grow  more  and  more  marked  as  age  increases 
and  these  give  suggestions  of  the  age,  reliable  within  perhaps  ten  years. 

The  three  most  characteristic  senile  changes  that  affect  the  skeleton 
are  the  following: 

1.  The  obliteration  of  the  cranial  sutures. 

2.  The  spreading  out  of  the  angle  of  the  jaw. 

2.     The  reduction  of  the  angle  between  the  neck  and  shaft  of  the  femur. 

The  three  cranial  sutures  (Lat.  sutura,  a  seam)  are  formed  by  the  join- 
ing together  of  the  edges  of  the  bones  that  form  the  cranial  part  of  the 
head.  Originally  five  bones  enter  into  this:  twofrontals,  that  cover  the 
forehead;  two  parietals,  that  build  the  sides,  and  a  single  occipital,  that  forms 


JAW  IN  MIDDLE  LIFE 


JAW  IN  OLD  AGE 


FIGURE  19.     Two  profile  views  of  the  humin  jaw  bone,  showing  the  change  of 
angle  throughout  middle  life  and  in  old  age. 

the  back.  The  two  f rentals,  however,  unite  to  form  one  piece  at 
about  the  end  of  the  second  year,  reducing  the  number  to  four.  The 
coronal  suture  runs  across  the  head  between  the  frontal  and  the  two  parie- 
tals, the  sagittal  suture  runs  lengthwise  between  the  two  parietals,  and  the 
lambdoidal  suture,  like  an  inverted  V,  fits  in  between  the  parietals  and  the 
occipital. 

In  the  infant  the  edges  of  all  these  bones  are  very  thin  and  lie  simply 
in  contact  with  one  another,  but,  as  age  increases  and  the  bones  grow,  they 
interlock  by  means  of  fine  serrations,  and  the  sutures  come  to  resemble  the 
lines  made  by  a  fret-saw,  looping  back  and  forth  in  a  complex  pattern. 
These  serrations  become  continually  more  intimate,  and  the  interlocking 
parts  fuse  together  until  in  advanced  age  there  is  a  more  or  less  complete 
obliteration  of  the  lines  between  the  bones,  and  the  entire  skullcap  becomes 
a  single  piece.  This  obliteration  of  the  sutures,  although  usually  a  sign 
of  age,  is  not  absolutely  reliable,  as  some  very  aged  skulls,  where  the  teeth 
have  long  been  lost,  show  distinct  sutures,  while  an  almost  complete 
obliteration  has  been  noticed  in  a  skull  scarcely  mature. 

The  second  character  is  in  part  the  result  of  the  loss  of  the  teeth, 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth 


89 


which  affects  the  jaws  mechanically,  allowing  them  to  shut  farther  than  in 
youth.  This  change  becomes  still  more  marked,  as  the  alveolar  processes, 
the  ridges  built  out  upon  the  jaws  for  the  insertion  of  the  teeth,  become 
absorbed  soon  after  the  loss  of  the  teeth,  and  allow  a  still  greater  approxi- 
mation of  the  jaws.  During  middle  life  the  two  parts  of  the  lower  jaw, 
body  and  ramus,  are  set  at  an  approximate  right  angle,  but  the  change  in 
the  action  of  the  jaw,  when  it  becomes  toothless,  causes  the  two  parts  to 
lie  more  nearly  in  a  straight  line,  or,  in  reality,  to  form  a  single  wide  curve. 
This  closing  up  of  the  jaws  causes  the  chin  to  swing  farther  out,  that  is,  to 
protrude,  and  this  protruding  chin,  approximating  the  nose,  with  the  mouth 
sunken  in,  is  a  well-known  characteristic  of  the  senile  profile.  The  flat- 


NECK  SHAFT  ANGLE  IN  YOUNG  ADULT      NECK  SHAFT  ANGLE  IN  OLD  AGE 

FIGURE  20.     Two  views  of  the  human  thigh  bone  (femur),  showing  the  change  of 
angle  in  its  head  and  neck  in  the  young  and  the  old. 

tening  of  the  angle  of  the  jaw  is  an  internal  change  corresponding  to  the 
external  one. 

The  third  of  the  three  characters  most  conveniently  used  to  detect 
old  age  is  the  angle  between  the  neck  and  shaft  of  the  femur  (thigh  bone), 
and  is  illustrated  in  Figure  20.  During  youth,  and  continued  in  mature 
life,  the  neck  and  head  of  this  bone,  so  characteristic  of  the  proximal  end, 
are  set  at  a  wide  angle  to  the  shaft,  as  in  A,  but  as  old  age  advances  the 
head  and  neck  become  bent  down  and  ultimately  form  with  the  shaft 
almost  a  right  angle;  and  at  the  same  time  the  neck  itself  becomes  some- 
what shorter.  As  the  head  and  neck  of  the  two  thigh  bones  support  the 
entire  weight  of  the  trunk  and  head  in  a  standing  figure  there  is  naturally  a 
great  and  almost  constant  strain  upon  these  parts,  and  it  thus  seems 
likely  that  this  bending  of  the  angle  in  old  age  is  directly  due  to  the  effects 
of  this  burden  when  the  normal  vigor  becomes  impaired.  Although  a 


00  Personal  Identification 


partial  compensation  is  found  in  the  shortening  of  the  neck  in  absolute 
length  during  this  process,  there  is  still  mechanically  a  greater  strain  upon 
the  bone  when  the  angle  becomes  thus  reduced,  and  to  this,  as  well  as 
to  the  increased  brittleness  of  the  bone  substance  in  advanced  age,  is  due 
the  frequency  with  which  this  neck  breaks  off  in  the  aged,  even  as  the 
result  of  a  slight  misstep. 

There  are  certain  senile  changes  in  other  skeletal  parts,  the  result  of 
the  reduction  in  the  actual  bone  substance,  externally  noticeable  in  the 
"settling-down"  process  in  age;  they  are,  however,  difficult  to  define, 
although  a  very  aged  skeleton,  or  even  a  single  aged  bone,  makes  a  definite 
impression  upon  the  observer.  In  all  this,  however,  one  must  be  on  his 
guard  not  to  claim  too  much  or  to  claim  it  dogmatically,  since  the  effect 
of  age  shows  individually  at  very  different  ages  and  acts  in  very  different 
ways. 

(c)  Stature  and  Proportions.  Inevitably  the  first  question  asked  by 
the  bystanders  on  the  excavation  of  a  skeleton,  and  in  legal  cases  at  least 
an  extremely  important  one,  is  How  tall  was  the  person?  What  was 
his  standing  height  when  alive?  Curiously  enough,  also,  the  novice  al- 
ways overestimates  the  height,  when  he  judges  from  the  bones  alone, 
and  considers  the  bones  of  an  ordinary  man  those  of  a  giant. 

Fortunately,  owing  to  the  researches  of  the  anthropologists,  a  long 
series  of  figures  are  available  on  this  point,  presented  in  the  form  of  co- 
efficients, numbers  by  wlu'ch  to  multiply  the  length  of  a  given  bone,  in 
order  to  get  the  total  height.  To  begin  with,  a  rather  rough  set  of  esti- 
mates, which  can  be  easily  applied,  show  that  if  we  multiply  the  total 
length  of  the  femur  (thigh  bone)  by  3.7  for  a  man,  and  by  3.6  for  a  woman, 
the  result  will  be  the  height  of  the  individual.  Similarly,  the  length  of 
the  humerus  is  about  one-fifth  that  of  the  total  height,  so  that  its  length, 
multiplied  by  5,  without  regard  to  sex,  will  give  a  rough  estimate  of  the 
height.  A  more  careful  table  has  been  prepared  by  Manouvrier,  which 
gives  for  each  sex,  in  a  normally  proportioned  individual,  the  length  in 
millimeters  of  each  of  the  long  bones  of  arm  and  leg  to  be  expected  with  a 
given  height.  This  table  follows  on  next  page. 

It  would  often  be  of  value  to  work  out  correspondencies  between  the 
Bertillon  measurements  and  the  bones,  yet  for  this  purpose  the  selection 
of  the  eleven  measurements  now  in  use  was  unfortunate.  There  are 
plenty  of  anthropometric  measurements,  like  the  length  of  the  radius,  or 
some  of  the  other  long  bones,  where  the  result  would  be  the  same  whether 
taken  from  the  skeleton  or  on  the  living  body,  but  the  eleven  measure- 
ments of  Bertillon  involve  either  soft  parts,  or  a  series  of  bones,  placed 
end  to  end,  where  allowance  has  to  be  made,  without  data,  for  the  car- 
tilages of  the  several  articulations.  Yet,  given  a  skeleton,  it  should  be  a 
comparatively  simple  matter  to  ascertain  from  the  bones  an  approximate 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth 


91 


MALES 

Fibula 

Tibia 

Femur 

Humerus 

Radius 

Ulna 

Total  Height 

318mm. 

319mm. 

392mm. 

295mm. 

213mm. 

227mm. 

1.53.0 

323 

324 

398 

298 

216 

231 

1.55.2 

328 

330 

404 

302 

219 

235 

1.57.1 

333 

335 

410 

306 

222 

239 

1.59.0 

338 

340 

416 

309 

225 

243 

1.60.5 

344 

346 

422 

313 

229 

246 

1.62.5 

349 

351 

428 

316 

232 

249 

1.63.4 

353 

357 

434 

320 

236 

253 

1.64.4 

358 

362 

440 

324 

239 

257 

1.65.4 

363 

368 

446 

328 

243 

260 

1.66.6 

368 

373 

453 

332 

246 

263 

1.67.7 

373 

378 

460 

336 

249 

266 

1.68.6 

378 

383 

467 

340 

252 

270 

1.69.7 

383 

389 

475 

344 

255 

273 

1.71.6 

388 

394 

482 

348 

258 

276 

1.73.0 

393 

400 

490 

352 

261 

280 

1.75.4 

398 

405 

497 

356 

264 

283 

1.76.7 

403 

410 

504 

360 

267 

287 

1.78.5 

408 

415 

512 

364 

270 

290 

1.81.2 

413 

420 

519 

368 

273 

293 

1.83.0 

FEMALES 


Fibula 

Tibia 

Femur 

Humerus 

Radius 

Ulna 

Total  height 

283 

284 

363 

263 

193 

203 

1.40.0 

288 

289 

368 

266 

195 

206 

1.42.0 

293 

294 

373 

270 

197 

209 

1.44.0 

298 

299 

378 

273 

199 

212 

1.45.5 

303 

304 

383 

276 

201 

215 

1.47.0 

307 

309 

388 

279 

203 

217 

1.48.8 

311 

314 

393 

282 

205 

219 

1.49.7 

316 

319 

398 

285 

207' 

222 

1.51.3 

320 

324 

403 

289 

209 

225 

1.52.8 

325 

329 

408 

292 

211 

228 

1.54.3 

330 

334 

415 

297 

214 

231 

1.55.6 

336 

340 

422 

302 

218 

235 

1.56.8 

341 

346 

429 

307 

222 

239 

1.58.2 

346 

352 

436 

313 

226 

243 

1.59.5 

351 

358 

443 

318 

230 

247 

1.61.2 

356 

364 

450 

324 

234 

251 

1.63.0 

361 

370 

457 

329 

238 

254 

1.65.0 

366 

376 

464 

334 

242 

258 

1.67.0 

92  Personal  Identification 


set  of  Bertillon  measurements,  which  might  occasionally  be  of  value  in 
identification.  This  would  be  somewhat  similar  to  the  reconstruction 
of  the  measurements  from  the  hat,  shoes,  and  other  clothing,  as  has 
l>een  treated,  with  some  success,  by  Bertillon  himself. 

(d)  The  Race  to  ichich  a  Given  Skeleton  Belongs.     There  is  a  general 
impression,  too  often  encouraged,  perhaps,  by  those  who  wish  to  main- 
tain a  reputation  for  exact  knowledge,  that  the  skeletons  of  the  various 
human  races,  and  especially  the  skull,  are  in  every  case  sufficiently  distinct 
in  their  characteristics  to  render  an  exact  verdict  on  the  subject  a  matter 
of  certainty.     Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  subject  of  racial  differences 
in  all  parts  of  the  body,  including  the  skeleton,  has  long  been  one  of  the 
chief  labors  of  the  physical  anthropologist,  and  it  is  possible  to  find  certain 
proportions,  angles,  peculiarities  in  the  different  bones,  and  other  such 
things,  which  are  characteristic  of  a  given  race  in  the  sense  of  their  more 
frequent  occurrence  there  than  elsewhere.     Detailed  measurements,  too, 
especially  the  use  of  these  in  showing  proportions,  often  reveal  quite  def- 
inite racial  differences,  when  considered  as  the  averages  embodying  the 
results  obtained  from  the  measurements  of  many  individuals.     This  is, 
however,  quite  a  different  thing  from  asserting  the  existence  of  constant 
and  definite  characteristics  which  exist  exclusively  and  constantly  in  a 
given  race,  whereby  every  individual  of  that  race  may  be  distinguished, 
which  is  not  the  case. 

An  anthropologist  who  has  made  himself  familiar  with  the  general 
characteristics  of  the  skulls  of  a  given  race  would  undoubtedly  be  able 
to  recognize  it  if  presented  with  a  dozen  or  two  skulls  of  the  same  race; 
there  would  even  be  some  specimens  in  the  entire  collection  the  features 
of  which  were  so  characteristic  and  typical  that  he  would  have  little  doubt 
about  them  if  examined  singly,  but  there  would  surely  be  others  in  which 
the  racial  characters  were  not  so  definite,  and  the  diagnosis  of  which  would 
be  uncertain,  even  to  him.  To  state  the  case  fairly  and  conservatively, 
a  man  who  has  had  practical  experience  with  skulls  and  skull  measurements 
would  usually  be  able  to  make  a  good  diagnosis  as  to  the  race  of  a  given 
skull;  testimony  which  might  prove  of  considerable  value,  but  upon  which, 
when  taken  alone,  no  final  verdict  should  be  based. 

(e)  The  Teeth  Identification.     The  value  of  the  teeth  in  determining 
the  age  of  a  skull  has  already  been  touched  upon.     In  cases  where  the  teeth 
show  the  care  of  a  dentist,  they  may  yield  results  leading  to  an  absolute 
identification,  provided  only  that  the  dentist  or  dentists  who  did  the  work 
can  be  found. 

Fillings,  porcelain  or  gold  crowns,  bridgework  and  other  dental  work 
of  a  permanent  nature,  are  individual  pieces  of  work.  They  are  performed 
according  to  the  countless  individual  needs  of  the  patient,  and  often,  by 
the  materials  used,  and  the  manner  of  application,  give  indication  of 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth  93 

the  dentist  who  did  the  work.  To  make  such  work  available  in 
identification,  however,  one  must  depend  upon  the  testimony  of  the 
operator,  and  to  some  extent  upon  his  memory;  but  fortunately,  among 
modern  practitioners,  the  details  of  the  teeth  of  each  patient  are  kept 
filed  away  on  individual  cards,  which  are  kept  up  to  date  by  the  addition 
of  each  new  treatment,  and  these  may  become  convincing  testimony  as 
to  the  identity  of  a  given  body,  or  a  given  skull  or  skull  fragment.  Then, 
too,  dentists  often  take  plaster  casts  of  parts  of  the  mouth,  or  of  single 
teeth,  and  where  these  are  kept,  would  prove  the  absolute  identity  of  a 
jaw  found  to  correspond.  In  all  use  of  the  teeth  as  means  of  identification 
it  must  always  be  kept  in  mind  that  their  condition  changes  from  time  to 
time,  that  teeth  are  extracted  or  spontaneously  rejected,  and  that  fillings 
and  other  dental  work  may  be  replaced,  but  it  would  never  be  possible, 
after  the  indubitable  loss  of  a  tooth,  to  identify  with  that  subject  one  who, 
at  a  later  date,  was  found  to  still  possess  it. 

A  special  advantage  of  the  teeth  in  identification  lies  in  the  fact  that 
they  are  the  hardest  and  most  imperishable  parts  of  the  body,  and  might 
thus  survive,  not  only  long  decay,  but  to  some  extent  the  action  of  fire  and 
chemicals.  Thus  in  the  Webster-Parkman  case  in  1849,  which  involved 
especially  the  identification  of  fragmentary  remains,  a  block  of  "  mineral 
teeth,"  something  like  the  modern  bridge  work,  was  found  in  the  ashes 
of  a  furnace,  and  was  positively  identified  by  a  dentist,  Dr.  Keep,  who 
had  made  them  for  Dr.  Parkman  in  1846,  three  years  before. 

In  spite  of  their  occasional  use,  however,  teeth  have  been  regarded  to 
have  but  little  value  in  identification,  since  their  use  depends  absolutely 
upon  the  possession  of  a  recent  dental  record  of  the  subject;  yet  this  is 
precisely  what  can  be  easily  furnished  by  the  dentists  in  cases  where  the 
subject  has  come  under  good  professional  treatment.  These  practitioners 
are  accustomed  to  keep  dental  charts  of  all  of  their  patients,  which  con- 
sist of  cards  bearing  the  outlines  of  a  complete  set  of  teeth,  upon  which 
every  detail  of  each  tooth  can  be  easily  and  quickly  marked.  Although 
such  records  are  generally  limited  to  definite  dental  operations,  the  full 
description,  or  signalment,  of  a  mouth,  as  recently  given  by  a  specialist, 
who  is  both  a  practitioner  and  a  professor  in  a  dental  college,*  is  as  follows, 
the  example  giving  both  the  data  asked  for  and  the  detailed  description 
of  a  supposed  case: 

DENTAL  AND  ORAL  PECULIARITIES.     CASE  No.  X. 

CHARACTER.  CONDITION  IN  THIS  CASE. 

(a)  Curve  of  arch,  whether  round,  square,        Round  square, 
or  V-shape. 

(b)  Width  of  arch,  in  centimeters  —  from         5.8  centimeters, 
outside  surface  of  first  upper  molars. 

"Thompson,  A.  H.,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  June,  1904,  pp.  161-163. 


Personal  Identification 


(c)  Depth  of  vault,  from  grinding  surface 

of  molars. 

(d)  Color  and  texture  of  gums;  peculiari- 
ties of  ridges  in  roof. 

(e)  Size  of  teeth,  whether  large,  small,  or 

medium. 

(f)  Shape  of  teeth,  whether  wide  or  nar- 

row, long  or  short,  worn  or  not,  etc. 

(g)  Color  of  teeth,  white  or  dark,  yellow- 

ish, bluish  of  modifications,  etc.  (This 
factor  would  be  modified  by  time  and 
habits,  but  the  expert  observer  would 
estimate  that.) 

(h)  Irregularities  of  the  teeth,  as  to  being 
out  of  normal  place;  crowding,  and 
malpositions  generally. 

(i)     Teeth  absent  totally. 


(j)     Fillings   in   teeth  —  noting  positions 
on  crown,  and  materials  employed. 


(k)     Cavities  of  decay  unfilled. 


(1)  Diseased  teeth,  dead  teeth,  chronic 
abscess,  etc. 

(m)  Artificial  tooth  crowns  —  porcelain, 
gold,  bridge  teeth,  etc. 

(n)     Artificial  teeth  on  plates. 

(o)  Miscellaneous  peculiarities,  such  as 
abrasion,  pits  or  other  congenital 
markings;  lingual  cingules;  number 
of  cusps  on  second  lower  bicuspids; 
on  upper  second  molars,  etc.  Third 
molars,  present  or  absent;  forms  of 
crowns,  etc.;  and  all  abnormal  forms 
of  teeth. 


2.5  cm. 

Gum  reddish-pink;  health  line  well 
marked;  rugse  shallow  and 
rather  straight. 

Medium  small. 

Rather  wide  and  short,  cusps  low 
and  rounded. 

Rich  cream  color,  shading  to  yel- 
lowish at  cervical  border. 


Upper  laterals  both  everted  at  me- 
sial border;  right  lower  central 
crowded  inward. 

First  right  upper  bicuspid  and 
second  left  lower  molar  missing; 
first  upper  molar  broken  off  and 
roots  remaining. 

(Fillings   located   on    chart,    num- 
bered.) 

1.  Gold  filling;  2,  large  amalgam 
filling;  3,  cement  filling. 

(Cavities  located  on  chart,  num- 
bered.) 1,  deep  decay;  2, 
shallow  decay. 

Dead  tooth  and  chronic  abscess 
and  fistula. 

(Located  on  chart.)  1,  gold  crown 
2,  porcelain  crown. 

None. 

(Located  on  chart.)  Third  molar 
peg-shaped;  2,  both  lower  bi- 
cuspids of  tricuspid  form; 
whitish  spot  on  labial  face. 


As  a  typical  case  where  the  co-operation  of  the  dentist  could  have 
proven  of  great  assistance,  this  author  cites  the  Hillmon  case,  where  years 
of  litigation  could  have  been  saved  by  the  use  of  the  teeth  for  identifica- 
tion. He  writes : 


The  history  of  life-insurance  litigation  demonstrates  the  value  of  imperish- 
able physical  data  for  the  purpose  of  identification,  and  these  data  the  teeth 
furnish.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  much  expensive  litigation  and  unfair 


Fragmentary  Remains;    Bones  and  Teeth  95 

decisions  would  have  been  avoided  if  these  data  had  been  heretofore  utilized. 
In  the  celebrated  Hillmon  case,  which  dragged  its  slow  length  for  twenty  year» 
through  the  United  States  courts  of  the  West,  casts  of  the  alleged  corpse  of 
Hillmon  were  placed  in  evidence  which  showed  that  the  denture  was  perfect 
and  regular,  while  the  teeth  of  Hillmon  himself  were  said  to  be  irregular  and 
some  were  absent.  It  was  a  case  in  which  the  body  was  so  disfigured  by  de- 
composition that  evidence  in  regard  to  the  teeth  was  of  the  utmost  importance. 
If  a  chart  of  Hillmon's  own  teeth  could  have  been  produced  which  showed  some 
of  his  dental  peculiarities  (missing  teeth,  irregularities,  fillings,  etc.)  a  comparison 
with  the  teeth  of  the  corpse  would  have  been  of  advantage  so  that  the  case 
would  have  been  sooner  settled  and  much  tedious  and  expensive  litigation 
avoided. 

As  a  very  recent  case  of  identification  by  dentistry,  we  have  the 
following,  which  appeared  in  the  Brooklyn  Eagle,  July  22,  1917. 


Identification  of  the  body  of  Miss  R S ,  31  years  old,  of East • 

— — street,  which  was  picked  up  on  Thursday,  when  floating  off  Pier  5,  Brooklyn,  was 
obtained  yesterday  through  a  description  of  the  bridgework  in  the  girl's  mouth.  The 
body  had  been  in  the  water  for  nearly  eight  months. 

Detective  Wickman  of  the  Bureau  of  Missing  Persons,  who  was  assigned  to  the 
case,  traced  the  bridgework  to  the  dentist  who  made  it  and  through  him  learned  the 

address  of  the  girl's  mother,  Mrs.  E S .  She  positively  identified  the  body 

yesterday.  R was  a  stenographer  employed  in  Wall  street,  and  for  some  unknown 

reason  jumped  off  a  North  River  ferryboat,  off  Twenty-third  street,  on  December  3, 
last. 


CHAPTER  VII 

IDENTIFICATION   OF  THE  SKULL;     RESTORATION  OF  THE   FACE 

"Hamlet:       How  long  will  a  man  lie  i    the  earth  ere  he  rot? 

1st  Clown:  Faith  .  ...  he  will  last  you  some  eight  year,  or 
nine  year;  a  tanner  will  last  you  nine  year. 

Hamlet:         Why  he  more  than  another? 

1st  Cloivn:  Why,  sir,  his  hide  is  so  tanned  with  his  trade,  that 
he  will  keep  out  water  a  great  while;  and  your  wa- 
ter is  a  sore  decayer  of  your  dead  body.  Here's  a 
scull  now  hath  lain  you  i  the  earth  three-and-twenty 
years. 

Hamlet:         Whose  was  it? 

1st  Clown:     A  mad  fellow's  it  was:     Whose  do  you  think  it  was? 

Hamlet:         Nay,  I  know  not. "  —  Hamlet;  Act  V,  Scene  I. 

"Der  Formenreichthum  der  skeletirten  Gesichtsschddel  ist  ein  so  grosser, 
doss  jeder  dieser  eine  bestimmte  Physiognomie  aufweist;  sie  sind  von  einander 
gerade  so  verschieden,  wie  es  die  Gesichter  der  Lebenden  sind. ""  —  M.  Holl; 
Ueber  Gesichtsbildung,  in  Mitt.  Anthrop.  Gesellschaft  in  Wien,  Bd.  XXVII. 
1898,  p.  57. 

IN  1895,  on  the  occasion  of  the  building  of  an  extensive  addition  to  the 
Church  of  St.  John  in  Leipzig,  the  parish  took  the  occasion  to  remove 
the  bones  of  Johann  Sebastian  Bach,  necessarily  disturbed  by  the 
building  operations,  and  place  them  in  a  more  fitting  resting  place,  under 
a  suitable  monument.  Upon  excavation  they  found,  as  is  usual  in  the 
crowded  churchyards  of  Europe,  a  number  of  skeletons  lying  one  above 
another,  the  bones  displaced  and  intermingled  with  pieces  of  the  wood 
of  the  coffins.  As  the  records  stated  that  Bach  had  been  placed  in  an 
oaken  coffin,  remains  associated  with  fragments  of  fir  were  rejected,  and 
the  two  skeletons  found  in  connection  with  traces  of  oak  carefully  collected. 
Of  these  two  one  was  the  skeleton  of  a  delicate  woman,  the  other  that  of 
a  moderately  robust  man.  There  was  little  doubt  that  these  latter  were 
the  bones  of  the  celebrated  musician,  but,  in  order  to  remove  the  last 
trace  of  doubt  the  bones  were  passed  over  to  the  anatomist,  Wilhelm  His, 

*(The  multiplicity  of  form  in  the  skeletonized  bones  of  the  face  is  so  great  that 
each  [skull]  displays  a  definite  physiognomy;  they  are  just  as  different  from  one  another 
as  are  the  faces  of  the  living.) 

96 


Restoration  of  the  Face 


97 


of  the  University  there,  with  instructions  to  see  how  well  they,  especially 
the  skull,  corresponded  with  the  extant  portraits,  busts,  and  traditional 
descriptions.  Basing  his  work  upon  the  previous  investigation  of  the 
supposed  skull  of  Schiller,  undertaken  some  twelve  years  before  by  the 
anthropologist  Welcker,  His  turned  his  first  attention,  not  to  the  skull, 
but  to  his  dissesting-room  subjects,  to  see  how  deeply  the  bones  of  the  face 


FIGURE  21.  Reconstruction  of  the  face  of  the  musi- 
cian, Johann  Sebastian  Bach,  built  directly  upon  the 
skull  by  the  sculptor,  Seffner,  in  accordance  with  measure- 
ments made  upon  the  faces  of  several  male  bodies  by 
the  anatomist,  Prof.  Wm.  His  of  Leipzig.  (After  His.) 

were  covered  by  the  soft  parts  at  various  points,  and  if  this  depth  varied 
very  much  in  different  individuals.  In  this  way  he  studied  the  bodies 
of  twenty-four  male  suicides,  between  the  ages  of  17  and  72,  employing 
as  a  means  of  measuring  the  thickness  of  the  soft  parts  a  sewing  needle 
set  in  a  handle,  and  bearing  a  small  rubber  disc.  The  needle  was  well 
oiled  and  pushed  through  the  flesh  at  the  spot  selected  until  it  struck  the 
surface  of  the  bone,  the  disc  retaining  the  measure  of  the  depth  after  the 


<)S  Personal  Identification 


withdrawal  of  the  needle.  He  selected  and  measured  fifteen  points  in 
each  subject,  nine  median,  along  the  profile,  and  six  lateral,  at  essential 
locations,  and  found  that  the  variation  in  the  individual  subjects  was 
slight.  As  he  had  selected  suicides  he  eliminated  pathological  conditions, 
and  obtained  the  measures  of  subjects  in  normal  condition. 

His  next  step  was  to  average  up  each  one  of  these  fifteen  measure- 
ments, found  in  each  of  the  twenty-four  subjects.  He  then  made  a  plaster 
cast  of  the  skull,  took  it  to  the  sculptor,  Seffner,  with  the  points  accurately 
located,  handed  him  his  table  of  thicknesses,  deduced  from  the  bodies, 
and  asked  him  to  model  a  clay  face  upon  the  skull,  using  the  exact  measures 
of  thickness  at  each  point  according  to  the  table.  The  result  was  the  face 
of  Bach,  similar  to  the  best  of  the  portraits. 

Striking  as  was  the  work  of  Wilhelm  His  in  this  case,  a  possible  crit- 
icism lies  in  the  unconscious  prejudice  on  the  part  of  the  sculptor,  for, 
although  he  was  not  told  whose  skull  it  was  that  he  had  to  work  with, 
and  although  the  plaster  cast  gave  no  suggestion  of  long  burial,  the  affair 
of  the  disinterment  of  the  bones  of  Bach  was  at  that  time  in  the  papers, 
and  he  must  have  had  some  suspicion  concerning  the  identity  of  the  cast 
handed  him  by  His. 

During  the  next  few  years  this  method  was  applied  by  various  in- 
vestigators to  the  skulls  of  prehistoric  peoples;  also  some  progress  was 
made  toward  ascertaining  the  thickness  of  the  soft  parts  of  the  face  in 
other  human  races,  but  no  definite  and  satisfactory  test  of  the  method  was 
made.  Such  a  test  could  be  made  upon  the  skull  of  a  known  individual, 
provided  the  identity  was  unknown  to  the  man  who  did  the  plastic  work; 
it  could  also  be  made  upon  a  dissecting-room  subject,  by  first  taking  a 
death-mask,  then  preparing  the  skull,  and  handing  it  over  to  someone 
at  a  distance,  who  could  not  possibly  have  seen  either  the  man  or  the 
mask.* 

Thus  far  but  one  such  attempt  has  been  published,  and  that  by  Pro- 
fessor Eggeling  of  the  University  of  Jena,  in  1913.  He  obtained  the  body 
of  a  criminal,  executed  by  hanging,  made  a  plaster  of  paris  death  mask,  and 
then  turned  the  head  over  to  the  preparator  for  the  purpose  of  preparing 

*At  this  writing  one  of  the  authors  has  made  such  a  mask  and  is  waiting  for  a 
convenient  time  at  which  to  have  the  work  completed.  He  has  also  restored  directly 
upon  the  skull,  the  face  of  a  noted  scientist,  who  died  some  seventeen  years  before,  and 
the  result  compares  very  well  with  a  bust  of  the  same  man,  made  from  life  by  a  cele- 
brated sculptor.  In  performing  the  work  the  author  purposely  avoided  seeing  either 
the  bust  or  any  picture  of  the  subject,  and  used  a  photograph  only  after  the  face  was 
complete,  and  then  solely  for  the  purpose  of  dressing  the  hair  and  beard,  of  the  arrange- 
ment of  which  the  skull  naturally  gave  no  indications.  The  final  result  was  a  decided 
success,  yet  the  test  was  not  absolute,  as  the  author  had  known  the  subject  personally, 
and  remembered  the  face  in  general,  although  he  would  have  been  quite  unable  to  have 
reproduced  any  feature  of  it  directly  in  clay,  without  the  skull. 


Restoration  of  the  Face 


99 


FIGURE  22 


FIGURE  23 


FIGURE  24 


FIGURE  25 


FIGURE  22.     Death  mask  of  a  criminal,  immediately  after  death  by  hanging. 

FIGURE  23.     Skull  of  the  same,  and  in  the  same  position. 

FIGURE  24.  Restoration  of  the  face,  built  upon  the  skull  by  the  sculptor,  Frau 
Bergemann-Konitzer.  She  did  not  follow  the  measurements  exactly,  and  used  her 
own  judgment  in  several  respects,  notably  the  location  of  the  eyes. 

FIGURE  25.  Restoration  of  the  face,  built  upon  the  skull  by  the  sculptor  Elster. 
He  followed  the  measurement  given  him  with  fidelity,  and  produced  more  satisfactory 
results  than  in  the  other  case.  In  both  cases  the  sculptors  were  furnished  with  identical 
casts  of  the  skull,  and  were  given  exact  measurements  by  the  anatomist  Eggeling,  but 
neither  of  them  was  allowed  to  see  either  the  subject  or  the  death  mask.  (.After  Eggeling.} 


100 


Personal  Identification 


the  skull.  This  he  duplicated  in  plaster,  and  gave  casts  to  two  differ- 
ent sculptors,  one  the  head  of  the  art  school  in  Weimar,  the  other  a  woman 
sculptor  in  business  for  herself.  The  measures  for  thickness,  which  he 


FIGURES  28-29.     Same  as  the  four  previous  figures,  and  arran  ?ed  in  the  same  order, 
but  showing  the  profile  instead  of  the  full  front  face.     (After  Eggeling.) 

furnished  th3m,  were  tested  in  the  clay  by  means  of  the  needle,  much 
as  in  the  case  of  bodies. 

The  results  of  the  two  sculptors  are  here  presented,  together  with 


Restoration  of  the  Face  101 


the  skull  and  the  death  mask.  The  woman  sculptor,  whose  results  are 
manifestly  not  satisfactory,  did  not  follow  the  measurements  given,  but 
increased  the  figures  for  the  cheek,  the  eyebrows,  the  chin,  and  some  others; 
she  was  also  not  an  anatomist,  and  was  ignorant  of  the  relationship  between 
the  skull  features  and  the  position  of  the  eyeballs,  which  probably  explains 
the  fact  that  she  placed  the  eyes  too  high. 

The  results  furnished  by  the  man  sculptor  were  better,  and  when 
we  take  into  consideration  the  open  mouth  of  the  real  subject,  the  absence 
of  hair  on  the  reconstruction,  and  especially  the  fact  that  the  method 
is  powerless  to  reproduce  the  folds,  wrinkles,  and  the  other  superficial 
details  upon  which  the  individual  expression  so  largely  depends,  a  fair 
amount  of  success  must  be  acknowledged.  . 

According  to  the  experience  of  one  of  the  authors,  who  has  employed 
this  method  in  reproducing  the  faces  upon  several  Indian  skulls  of  local 
origin  (Southern  New  England),  the  almost  universal  criticisms  offered 
by  the  general  public  are  that  the  data  must  certainly  be  lacking  for  the 
nose,  lips,  and  ears,  and  possibly  the  eyes;  in  short,  that  while  the  shape 
of  the  head  and  forehead,  and  perhaps  also  the  cheeks  and  jaws,  are  indi- 
cated by  the  skull,  much  of  the  contour  of  the  parts  mentioned  must  be 
imaginary.  To  this  we  can  only  say  that,  in  practical  experience,  much 
more  is  given  than  would  seem  to  one  looking  over  the  list  of  points.  The 
nose,  for  example,  completes  fully  half  its  profile  upon  a  bony  founda- 
tion; the  center  of  its  base  is  also  accurately  determined  by  the  point 
in  the  middle  of  the  upper  lip;  and  its  breadth  is  indicated  by  the  edges 
of  the  nasal  cavity  in  the  skull,  and  by  the  relation  between  the  breadth 
between  them  and  a  certain  length  measure.  In  fact,  the  criticism  holds 
alone  in  the  case  of  the  ears,  for  which  the  skull  indicates  only  the  position 
of  the  opening  (meatus),  and  because  of  this  it  is  best  in  a  reconstruction 
to  leave  the  ears  somewhat  unfinished,  and  represented  by  a  mass  of  the 
usual  proportions,  with  the  main  features  indicated. 

The  points  used  for  making  the  measurements,  well  shown  by  the 
accompanying  diagrams,  taken  from  Kollmann  and  Biichly,  are  given  in 
the  following  table.  There  is  added  also  the  proper  thickness  to  use  at 
each  point  for  males  and  females  of  the  white  race;  also  certain  averages 
which  have  been  obtained  for  Hereros  (German  Southwest  Africa),  which, 
in  the  absence  of  more  exact  data,  might  well  be  used  for  American  negroes. 
The  averages  for  white  males  rest  in  all  upon  45  individuals,  but  those  for 
white  females  are  averaged  from  eight  only,  the  only  female  subjects  thus 
far  measured.  The  figures  for  the  Herero  negroes  are  taken  from  three 
men. 

In  the  negro  (Herero)  the  italicized  figures  will  be  seen  to  differ 
markedly  from  those  for  the  white  race;  otherwise  the  two  races  show  no 
considerable  differences.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  ample  statistics  for  Ameri- 


102 


Personal  Identification 


can  negroes  of  as  pure  blood  as  possible  may  soon  be  furnished  by  our 
anthropologists;  we  should  also  have  fuller  data  on  the  faces  of  Chinese 
than  the  results  from  eight  males,  furnished  by  Birkner  in  1903-1907. 


Location  of  point 

Abbre- 
viation 

White  males 

White  females 

Hereroes 

Occipital,  between  lambda  and  inion  .  .  . 
Middle  of  parietal  region  

O 
p 

6.8mm. 
5.3 

'j 

? 

? 

? 

Forehead4   line  of  hair          

St, 

3.56 

3.59 

3.93 

Forehead;  middle    

f 

4.3 

? 

? 

Forehead;  glabella         

St, 

4.69 

4.32 

5.36 

Nasion  

Nw 

4.93 

4.55 

4.76 

Middle  of  internasal  suture 

Nr 

3.25 

2.78 

3.76 

Rhinion;  free  end  of  nasal  bones  

Ns 

2.12 

2.07 

3.43 

Base  of  upper  lip,  at  septum  

Ow 

11.59 

9.92 

12.16 

Prosthion;  middle  of  hollow  in  upper  lip, 
Transverse  furrow  of  chin,  at  base  of 
lower  lip  

lg 
K, 

9.48 
10.05 

8.18 
10.35 

13.63 
10.46 

Gnathion;     point     of     chin,     directed 
forward  

Ko 

10.22 

10.06 

9.8 

Beneath  chin,  directed  upward  

K, 

6.08 

6.18 

5.26 

Middle  of  eyebrow,  or  superciliary  ridge, 
Middle  of  lower  rim  of  orbit  

oa 
ua 

'  5.65 
4.29 

5.32 
4.45 

6.85 
5.65 

Middle  of  malar  bone,  highest  point    .  .  . 
Middle  of  zygomatic  arch   

wb 
jb. 

6.62 
4.33 

7.73 
5.32 

7.31 
4.46 

Base  of  zygomatic  arch,  near  ear    .    . 

ib  n 

6.74 

6.92 

11.03 

Side  of  mandible,  in  front  of  masseter  .  .  . 
Middle  of  ramus  of  jaw,  through  masse- 
ter      

Uk 

Ms 

8.20 
17  53 

7.13 
15  91 

9.68 
18.63 

Gonion;  angle  of  jaw  

Kw 

10.46 

9.53 

13.61 

In  the  negro  measurements  the  extra  thickness  concerns  the  lips,  the 
surroundings  of  the  eyes,  and  the  point  located  just  in  front  of  the  ear; 
in  the  Chinese  the  points  about  the  nasal  bones  are  thicker,  that  is,  the 
nose  is  better  clothed  with  flesh  than  in  whites. 

For  making  an  actual  reconstruction  on  a  skull  clay  may  be  used, 
but  a  much  better  material  is  plastilina  (or  plasticina,  another  trade 
name  for  the  same  thing),  which  does  not  dry.  There  are  several  degrees 
of  hardness  of  this  substance,  and  a  fairly  hard  quality  should  be  selected, 
as  hard  as  can  be  well  worked.  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  set  the  jaw  in 
a  natural  position.  A  piece  of  plastilina  placed  in  each  glenoid  fossa  to 
receive  the  condyles  holds  the  jaw,  and  also  forms  a  substitute  for  the 
structures  of  the  joint;  the  setting  of  the  jaw  can  then  be  completed  by 
pushing  a  mass  of  plastilina  upon  the  back  of  the  row  of  teeth,  remembering 
that  in  life  the  edges  of  the  teeth  usually  do  not  quite  meet.  Some  labor 
may  now  be  saved  by  filling  the  space  beneath  the  jaw,  and  the  hollows 


Restoration  of  the  Face 


103 


under  the  zygoma,  with  cotton,  held  in  place  by  plastilina.     The  orbits, 
however,  must  be  left  until  later. 

After  determining  the  exact  location  of  one  of  the  points  to  use, 
a  covering  of  plastilina  may  be  put  on,  guessing  at  the  thickness,  and 
then  testing  with  a  needle  and  disc,  as  in  the  first  researches  with  bodies, 


FIGURE  30.     Diagram  of  a  human  skull,  showing  the  points  used  in   the  scientific 
restoration  of  a  face.     Front  view.       (After  Kollmann  and  Biichly.} 

or,  perhaps  better,  a  narrow  strip  of  paper  of  the  thickness  of  writing 
paper  may  be  cut  to  a  length  of  the  exact  thickness  desired,  and  imbedded 
in  the  plastilina.  In  actual  use  the  strips  are  cut  about  a  millimeter  wide, 
and  bent  across  the  middle  at  a  right  angle.  One  arm  is  then  measured 
and  cut  to  the  length  required;  the  other  serves  as  a  foot,  and  may  be 


104 


Personal  Identification 


stuck  down  upon  the  bone  surface  with  the  plastilina.  See  that  the 
measured  piece  projects  perpendicularly  from  the  surface  of  the  bone, 
and  then  build  up  on  both  sides  of  it  with  little  pellets  of  plastilina,  being 
careful  not  to  bend  it.  There  is  thus  formed  a  cone  or  pyramid  indicating 


FIOCRE  31.     Same  as  the  previous  figure.    Side  view.      (After  Kollmann  and  Buchly.) 

the  thickness  needed  at  that  place,  and,  after  building  two  or  three  adjacent 
pyramids,  the  space  between  them  may  be  filled  up.  It  is  surprising  how 
obvious  are  the  little  white  lines  on  the  surface,  made  by  the  cut  ends  of 
the  writing  paper,  and  at  any  time,  if  they  get  covered  up,  they  may  be 
brought  to  light  by  gently  rubbing  the  plastilina  surface  where  the  strip 


Restoration  of  the  Face  105 


should  be.  At  the  final  finishing  of  the  surface,  these  can  be  easily  covered 
up,  but  it  is  better  to  keep  them  in  sight  during  the  progress  of  the  work.* 

The  construction  of  the  eyes  becomes  transformed  from  an  unsatis- 
factory sort  of  guesswork  to  a  simple  and  fairly  precise  piece  of  work  by 
a  method  which  developed  during  the  course  of  our  own  study,  and  the 
result  will  appeal  from  the  underlying  anatomical  principles  upon  which 
it  is  based.  For  each  orbit  we  first  construct  a  plastilina  eyeball,  of  the 
proper  size  to  allow  for  the  eye  muscles,  glands,  and  other  surrounding 
structures  which  in  life  share  the  orbit  with  the  eyeball,  and  fix  this  im- 
movably on  a  little  bed  of  cotton,  previously  packed  into  the  deepest 
part  of  the  orbit.  In  the  placing  of  this  eyeball  there  is  still  some  lack 
of  precision  in  its  forward  and  back  location,  yet  from  observations  upon 
living  people  one  may  see  that  in  the  average  eye  the  edge  of  a  wooden 
ruler,  or  other  similar  object,  may  be  placed  vertically  over  the  closed 
eye  and  come  in  firm  contact  at  the  same  time  with  the  eyebrow,  the 
lower  boundary  of  the  orbit  and  the  surface  of  the  lid-covered  eyeball. 
As  the  eyelid  is  but  a  little  thinner  than  the  skin  covering  the  other  parts 
named,  this  means  that  the  plastilina  eyeball,  set  in  the  skull  and  tested 
in  the  same  way  should  be  barely  cut  by  a  ruler  placed  up  and  down  across 
the  orbit  and  resting  on  the  surface  of  the  bone.  Upon  this  ball,  after 
the  surroundings  of  the  eye  have  been  built  out,  the  two  eyelids  may  be 
fitted,  first  shaping  them  to  about  the  correct  shape.  The  two  canthi 
(angles,  outer  and  inner,  that  form  the  corners  of  the  eye  opening)  are 
located  by  their  relation  to  certain  anatomical  landmarks  on  the  skull 
(naso-lacrimal  duct;  malar  tubercle)  and  the  location  kept  by  means  of 
pins,  paper  strips,  or  toothpicks,  until  the  proper  time  for  fitting  on  the 
eyelids.  This  cannot  fail  to  give  the  general  proportions,  although  the 
subtle  characters  which  give  the  individual  expression  are  lost  forever. 

The  nose,  although  to  some  extent  a  fleshy  organ,  projecting  beyond 
the  bone,  is  nevertheless  in  its  shape  and  proportions  determined  far  more 
by  the  skull  than  is  usually  believed.  Much  of  the  profile  is  underlaid 
by  bone,  and  after  building  up  the  points  Nw,  Nr,  Ns  and  Ow  there  is 
practically  but  one  possible  way  to  complete  it.  The  width  at  the  bridge 
is  also  given  by  the  bone,  and  that  at  the  nostrils  is  indicated  by  the  outer 
edges  of  the  nasal  (piriform)  fossa,  that  conspicuous  opening  that  marks 
the  nose  of  the  skull.  These  edges  about  coincide  with  the  outer  edges  of 
the  nostrils,  outside  of  which  (laterally)  there  comes  only  the  thickness 
of  the  nasal  wings. 

With  the  mouth  the  data  are  at  present  rather  meager,  but  something 
can  be  gathered  from  a  study  of  the  living  in  respect  to  the  relations  be- 
tween the  parts  of  the  lips  and  mouth  and  the  teeth.  Ask  your  friends 

*Poynter  uses  strips  of  thin  metal  instead  of  paper,  and  finds  them  easier  to 
work  with  and  more  accurate. 


IOC 


Personal  Identification 


H-l 

a   S 

-g     03     t_ 

c  ^     v 
eo    u    *j 

^^    fli 


S    % 


§1   H 


V 


c3 

a    ^ 
o    o 

as 


eo  g 

H  o 

g  ^ 

o  5p 


Restoration  of  the  Face  107 


how  they  hold  their  teeth  when  the  mouth  and  face  are  quiet,  whether 
the  edges  are  in  contact  or  not,  and  you  will  probably  find  that  in  most 
cases  the  teeth  are  held  open  a  little,  a  point  which  will  help  in  the  setting 
of  the  jaw,  the  first  step  in  a  reconstruction.  Again,  when  the  mouth  is 
in  repose,  and  held  quite  naturally,  without  a  smile,  place  toothpicks 
straight  in  at  the  corners,  until  they  strike  a  tooth;  then  ascertain  which 
tooth  this  is,  and  the  exact  point  at  which  it  was  struck.  This  seems 
to  be  usually  at  about  the  middle  of  the  second  upper  bicuspid,  but  our 
experience  has  been  very  limited  in  respect  to  this  important  point,  and 
there  may  be  some  individual  difference.  When  this  point  is  determined, 
toothpicks  may  be  fastened  to  the  skull  under  construction,  and  as  they 
project  through  the  plastilina,  they  are  ready  to  mark  the  exact  limits 
of  the  mouth  slit  when  the  modeler  is  ready  for  it. 

The  size  and  fulness  of  the  lips,  although  not  given  directly,  are  well 
indicated  by  fixing  the  median  points  above  and  below  them,  Ig  and  Kl. 
The  first  of  these,  upon  the  edge  of  the  alveolar  ridge  in  the  skull,  marks 
the  center  of  the  little  median  hollow  in  the  upper  lip  of  the  living;  the 
second  corresponds  to  the  place  where  in  the  inside  of  the  mouth  the  lower 
lip  becomes  attached  to  the  underlying  bone.  These  points,  together 
with  the  slope  of  the  alveoli  and  teeth,  and  the  exact  position  of  the  mouth 
slit,  hedge  the  problem  around  with  so  many  known  conditions  that  there 
is  but  slight  opportunity  for  the  manipulator  to  vary  his  work,  or  to 
construct  more  than  one  type  of  mouth  upon  a  given  skull. 

For  the  external  ear  there  are  no  data  other  than  that  of  its  position, 
given  by  the  external  opening.  It  must  here  be  remembered  that  this 
does  not  coincide  with  the  visible  opening  in  the  living,  but  the  latter  lies 
a  little  below  and  in  front  of  the  opening  in  the  bone.  There  is  here  a 
little  individual  variation,  but  as  an  average  5mm.  may  be  allowed  each 
way;  that  is,  the  plastilina  ear  should  be  so  placed  that  the  center  of  its 
external  opening  lies  5mm.  in  front  of,  and  also  omm.  below,  that  of  the 
bony  opening. 

Probably  a  more  detailed  study  of  the  correspondence  between 
skull  and  soft  parts  in  the  facial  region,  taken  in  a  large  number  of  bodies, 
will  add  much  to  our  ability  to  build  up  the  features  correctly  on  the 
bony  face.  There  are  undoubtedly  many  more  correlations  between 
the  soft  features  and  the  underlying  hard  parts  than  we  know  about  at 
present,  since  in  a  region  where  the  two  are  so  intimately  related  as 
on  the  face  any  change  in  the  former  must  bring  about  some  change  in 
the  latter.  The  droop  of  a  lip,  or  the  increased  weight  of  an  eyelid,  may 
bring  with  them  some  slight  change  in  the  bone  beneath,  and  these  corre- 
lations between  the  soft  and  the  hard  parts  we  may  sometime  learn  to  read. 

In  two  points  only,  that  of  the  bodily  condition  of  the  subject,  whether 
well  nourished  or  emaciated,  and  that  of  the  presence  and  location  of 


108 


Personal  Identification 


wrinkles,  two  closely  associated  superficial  characters  that  differ  at  times 
in  the  same  individual,  can  the  skull  not  be  expected  to  furnish  much 


' 


FIGURE  34.  Restoration  of  the  face  on  the  skull  of  a  female  cliff-dweller, 
a  member  of  a  prehistoric  race  of  southern  Utah.  This  is  the  same  woman 
shown  in  Figures  15  and  16,  but  the  restoration  has  been  effected  by  quite 
different  means.  In  Figure  16  the  original  flesh  was  soaked  up  to  presumably 
its  normal  shape  and  size  by  caustic  potash;  in  this  case  the  previous  specimen 
was  skeletonized  and  the  face  restored  by  the  addition  of  plastilina  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  cleaned  bones. 

information;  and  inasmuch  as  these  details,  superficial  as  they  are,  are 
much  relied  upon  in  sight  recognition  of  individual  faces,  the  method, 
to  the  unscientific,  will  always  have  its  deficiencies.  Even  here,  however, 


Restoration  of  the  Face  109 


certain  of  the  deeper  folds  and  wrinkles  can  be  inferred  from  the  general 
relations  of  the  bony  surfaces,  and  assuredly  many  of  the  traces  of  senility, 
the  shrunken  gums,  the  flattened  curve  of  the  jaw,  and  the  approach  of 
nose  and  chin,  are  as  strongly  marked  in  the  skull  as  in  the  face. 

When  perfected  there  is  practically  no  end  to  the  applications  of 
this  method  of  face  reconstruction,  especially  in  its  medico-legal  aspect, 
that  is,  in  identification.  Of  the  278  skeletons  obtained  from  the  wreck 
of  the  Maine,  raised  from  the  harbor  of  Havana,  only  a  few  could  be 
identified,  and  these  only  by  the  aid  of  the  associated  objects,  such  as 
swords  and  buttons.  Had  the  skulls  been  reconstructed  by  this  method 
it  is  probable  that  with  the  co-operation  of  relatives  and  friends  but  very 
few  would  have  remained  unidentified. 

While  these  scientific  methods  of  restoring  the  face  upon  the  skull, 
based  on  careful  measurements,  have  been  employed  chiefly  as  tests, 
and,  with  the  exception  of  the  case  of  Bach,  have  not  been  applied  directly 
to  identification,  in  September,  1916,  a  similar  means  was  resorted  to  by 
the  New  York  Police  in  establishing  the  identity  of  a  probable  murder 
victim,  and  thus  the  La  Rosa  case  becomes  the  first  in  which  identification 
by  a  facial  restoration  plays  a  part.  Not  wishing  to  trust  to  the  some- 
what highly  colored  "stories"  from  the  daily  press  concerning  this  case, 
the  authors  obtained  an  account  of  the  process  both  from  the  son  of  the 
artist  and  from  the  Police  Department,  and  are  thus  enabled  to  present 
an  authentic  account  of  this  notable  case. 

We  may  first  quote  from  a  personal  letter  from  Mr.  G.  H.  Scull, 
Fifth  Deputy  Commissioner  of  the  Police  Department  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  whose  courtesy  in  furnishing  these  particulars  we  take  pleasure 
in  acknowledging.  Commissioner  Scull  writes: 

"At  6  P.  M.,  September  12,  1916,  workmen  engaged  in  excavating  for 
the  cellar  of  an  apartment  house  at  Hegeman  Avenue  and  Powell  Street 
unearthed  a  human  skeleton.  The  skeleton  was  a  man  apparently  25 
years  of  age,  5',  6",  dark  brown  hair,  two  gold  teeth  in  lower  jaw,  blue 
coat  and  trousers,  black  leather  belt  and  a  briarwood  pipe.  The  wisdom 
teeth  were  just  protruding  from  the  jawbone,  a  portion  of  dark  brown 
hair  was  attached  to  the  base  of  the  skull  and  a  small  quantity  of  hair 
was  attached  to  the  top  of  the  head  and  it  looked  as  if  the  man  was 
inclined  to  be  bald.  Four  fractures  appeared, —  three  at  the  base  of  the 
skull  and  one  large  one  at  the  top  of  the  head. 

"At  9.30  A.  M.,  September  27,  Lieutenant  Williams,  together  with 
Dr.  Pacini  of  the  Standard  Testing  Laboratory,  and  Dr.  Pacini's  father, 
who  had  some  experience  in  this  line  of  work,  started  to  rebuild  the  face 
on  this  skeleton.  The  father  of  Dr.  Pacini  bought  some  clay  known  as 
'Plasteline,'  and  with  this  they  built  up  the  face.  Some  clippings  from 
hair  cut  in  a  barber  shop  were  secured,  several  pairs  of  glass  eyes  were 


110  Personal  Identification 


requisitioned  from  a  nearby  glass  eye  factory.  It  was  then  necessary 
to  have  a  neck.  Lieutenant  Williams  took  a  coffee  can  and  the  necktie 
found  on  the  skeleton  just  fitted  the  can.  A  roll  of  newspaper  served  as 
a  spinal  column,  which  was  cut  to  the  depth  of  the  can  and  made  rigid 
by  soft  paper  and  clay.  Lieutenant  Williams  figured  that  an  Italian 
with  dark  brown  hair  would  naturally  have  brown  eyes,  and  a  pair  of 
brown  eyes  that  were  best  suited  to  the  sockets  were  selected  out  of  the 
stock.  The  eyebrows  were  trimmed,  and  a  small  quantity  of  hair  was 
placed  over  the  right  ear,  and  continued  down  the  neck  to  meet  the  natural 
hair  at  the  base  of  the  skull.  Photographs  of  the  results  were  then  taken. 

"For  several  days  the  locality  where  the  skeleton  was  found  was 
canvassed  and  several  persons  said  they  were  sure  the  man  was  on  the 
farm  where  his  body  was  dug  up,  but  we  were  unable  to  secure  his  name. 
A  few  days  later  a  second  skeleton  was  found  near  the  same  locality  and 
the  cuts  on  the  skull  showed  a  similarity  to  those  on  the  first  one.  When 
the  remains  of  this  second  skeleton  were  searched  by  detectives  from  the 
Seventh  Branch,  a  check  was  found  payable  to  the  order  of  Rosario  Passo- 
rello,  dated  November  17,  1914.  The  missing  persons  records  were 
searched  and  it  was  found  that  he  had  been  reported  by  his  sister,  who  was 
located,  and  the  remains  identified  by  means  of  clothing  and  articles 
found  in  same.  On  September  24,  friends  of  Passorello  gathered  at  the 
Seventh  Branch  for  the  purpose  of  identifying  his  effects,  and  a  man 
named  J R was  arrested  charged  with  the  crime. 

"Lieutenant  Williams  took  the  photographs  and  head  to  the  Seventh 
Branch,  and  while  M O and  V — —  P ,  relatives  of  Passo- 
rello, were  looking  at  the  photographs,  Lieutenant  Williams  uncovered 

the  head  and  P pointed  to  it  and  exclaimed,  'That's  Dominick, 

Dominick  La  Rosa!'  O exclaimed,  'That's  Dominick's  necktie, 

only  more  red.'  P then  lifted  the  hat  and  said,  'Dominick  a  little 

bald,  and  had  two  gold  teeth'  and  he  tried  to  push  the  lips  open  to  see 
the  gold  teeth. 

"On  October  8,  at  the  Grand  Jury  rooms,  one  J S ,  who 

had  known  La  Rosa  for  several  years,  and  saw  him  a  day  or  two  before 
he  disappeared,  stated  that  the  head  looked  like  La  Rosa,  but  his  cheeks 
were  a  little  fuller.  When  Lieutenant  Williams  took  some  of  the  clay 
from  the  back  of  the  neck  and  filled  in  the  cheeks,  he  declared  that  it 
looked  just  like  Dominick  La  Rosa." 

Thus  an  identification  of  a  skeleton,  without  flesh,  was  made  from  a 
restoration,  while  the  only  clue  obtainable  was  the  proximity  in  the  earth 
to  a  second  skeleton,  identified  by  a  bank  check.  Much  credit  should  be 
given,  both  to  Lieutenant  Williams,  who  first  conceived  the  idea  of  a 
restoration,  and  to  the  two  Pacinis,  father  and  son,  who  brought  the 
matter  to  completion. 


PART  II 

Methods  Which  Furnish  Absolute  Identification 


CHAPTER  I 

FHICTION-RIDGE    CONFIGURATION;    TECHNIQUE    OF   MAKING 
AND  STUDYING  PRINTS 

"  //  they  (the  ridges)  had  been  only  twice  as  large  as  they  are,  they  would 
have  attracted  general  attention  and  been  commented  on  from  the  earliest 
times.  Had  Dean  Swift  known  and  thought  of  them,  when  writing  about 
the  Brobdingnags,  whom  he  constructs  on  a  scale  twelve  times  as  great  as  our 
own,  he  would  certainly  have  made  Gulliver  express  horror  at  the  ribbed  fingers 
of  the  giants  who  handled  him.  The  ridges  on  their  palms  would  have  been 
as  broad  as  the  thongs  of  our  coach-whips. 

"Let  no  one  despise  the  ridges  on  account  of  their  smallness,  for  they 
are  in  some  respects  the  most  important  of  all  anthropological  data."  —  Sir 
Francis  Galton;  Finger-Prints,  1892,  pp.  1-2. 

THE  skin  covering  the  lower  surfaces  of  the  hands  and  feet,  including 
the  palms,  the  soles,  and  the  balls  of  fingers  and  toes,  differs 
markedly  from  that  of  the  general  body  surface.  It  is  entirely 
without  hair,  which,  in  rudimentary  condition  at  least,  covers  the  rest  of 
the  body;  it  is  without  the  pigment  or  coloring  matter  which,  even  in  a 
white  person,  is  present  elsewhere  in  some  quantity;  and,  what  is  im- 
portant for  us,  it  is  covered  with  minute  ridges,  in  some  places  running  in 
parallel  course,  like  a  piece  of  corduroy,  and  in  others  forming  various  kinds 
of  loops,  spirals,  or  whorls,  known  as  "patterns."  In  many  of  the  lower 
mammals,  especially  the  monkeys,  these  ridges  are  much  coarser  and 
heavier  than  in  man,  and  perform  the  important  function  of  preventing 
the  surfaces  from  slipping,  or  "skidding,"  during  the  rapid  movements 
involved  in  a  life  in  the  trees.  They  are  hence  called  "friction  ridges" 
and  the  skin  areas  thus  marked  are  called  "friction  skin." 

As  the  separate  ridges  are  frequently  interrupted,  or  form  a  fork 
by  fusing  with  an  adjacent  one,  even  the  more  monotonous  areas  where 
the  ridges  run  in  parallel  course  are  not  without  individuality,  so  that 
while  no  two  areas  of  appreciable  size  can  ever  be  the  exact  duplicates  of 
each  other,  it  is  where  the  ridges  become  involved  in  the  formation  of  a 
"pattern"  that  their  individuality  becomes  the  most  readily  apparent. 
It  has  been  shown  above  that  a  single  pattern,  that  of  the  right  thumb, 
for  instance,  of  three  men  with  similar  faces,  is  sufficient  to  distinguish 
each  absolutely,  however  much  they  may  resemble  one  another  in  general 
appearance  (Figure  4).  On  the  other  hand,  the  identity  of  a  man  may  be 

113 

fjthrary  o 


114  Personal  Identification 


maintained  by  a  finger  print,  or  any  other  portion  of  the  friction  skin, 
no  matter  how  great  a  change  may  be  effected  in  his  face  and  general 
appearance  (Figure  10). 

To  begin  the  actual  study  of  friction  skin  nothing  more  is  at  first 
necessary  than  your  own  hand.  Hold  it  in  a  good  light  and  look  over 
the  palmar  surface.  If  a  reading  glass  is  handy  it  may  assist,  but  for 
normal  vision  it  is  not  necessary.*  At  first  you  will  perhaps  see  nothing 
but  the  icrinkles,  those  folds  and  creases  of  skin  developed  through  the 
continual  movements  of  the  hand  and  fingers,  and  so  advantageously  used 
by  palmists,  though  without  the  slightest  scientific  basis,  in  turning 
credulity  into  capital. 

Now  focus  your  attention  to  some  rather  prominent  part  of  the  palm, 
for  example,  the  large  pad  or  cushion  which  runs  along  the  outer  edge 
of  the  palm,  or  the  transverse  cushion  at  the  base  of  the  fingers,  and  you 
will  see  that  the  entire  skin  surface  is  made  up  of  friction  ridges,  perhaps 
running  straight  and  parallel,  perhaps  forming  here  and  there  a  loop  or 
other  form  of  'pattern.  These  ridges,  when  once  identified,  may  be  fol- 
lowed over  the  entire  surface  of  the  palm  and  the  palmar  surface  of  the 
fingers,  but  in  hollows  and  flat  places,  as  in  the  center  of  the  palm,  they 
are  often  flat  and  indistinct.  On  the  balls  of  the  fingers  (the  fleshy  pad 
covering  the  end  joint)  they  are  always  distinct  and  strong,  and  in  most 
cases  form  a  complicated  pattern,  usually  a  loop  or  a  whorl  (little  concentric 
circles),  the  center  of  the  pattern  coinciding  with  the  raised  middle  point 
of  the  pad. 

After  the  ridges  of  one  hand  have  been  studied,  and  the  general 
location  and  form  of  the  patterns  learned,  take  the  other  hand  and  note 
the  differences.  These  may  possibly  not  be  very  noticeable,  but  it  is 
altogether  likely  that  at  least  one  striking  difference  will  be  noted.  Finally, 
study  the  ridge  conformation  on  the  hands  of  a  few  other  persons  and 
compare  them  all.  The  amount  of  difference  you  find  will  be  about 
proportionate  to  the  carefulness  of  your  observation,  although  if  the  entire 
investigation  be  limited  to  but  three  or  four  persons,  especially  if  they 
are  members  of  the  same  family,  you  may  chance  not  to  get  any  marked 
or  striking  differences. 

The  second  lesson  should  consist  of  learning  how  to  make  a  print. 
You  need  for  this  a  little  printer's  ink,  a  small  rubber  roller,  a  glass  plate, 

*In  addition  to  a  reading  glass  it  may  be  found  convenient  to  employ  a  mag- 
nifying (concave)  mirror,  such  as  are  sold  for  shaving  mirrors.  These  are  not  only 
stronger  than  ordinary  reading  glasses,  but  are  especially  convenient  in  places  which 
are  hard  to  get  at  directly.  Thus,  in  examining  the  foot,  where  the  use  of  this  device 
would  save  an  awkward  position  on  the  part  of  examiner,  subject,  or  both.  Here, 
if  the  ridge  crests  are  inked  slightly  with  the  roller,  or  are  merely  soiled  by  the  pick-up 
dust  from  the  floor,  the  contrast  between  them  and  the  clean  furrows  brings  out  the 
pattern  with  almost  the  clearness  of  a  print.  G.  T.  M. 


Friction  Skin  and  Friction  Ridges  115 

and  some  smooth  white  paper.  Glazed  paper  is  the  best  of  all.  The  best 
ink  to  use  is  that  used  for  the  mimeograph  or  neostyle.  It  comes  in  tubes 
of  various  sizes.  For  a  roller  the  regular  mimeograph  kind  is  the  best, 
but  the  hard  rubber  rollers  used  in  amateur  photography  give  fair  re- 
sults. The  glass  plate  should  be  large  enough  to  receive  an  entire  hand  or 
foot,  perhaps  6  x  10  inches.  For  hands  the  paper  should  be  cut  14  x  10 
inches,  and  for  feet  14  x  12,  or  the  latter  size  may  be  used  for  both.  One 
such  piece  will  hold  the  pair,  placed  in  the  natural  order,  the  right  on  the 
right  side. 

Put  a  little  ink  upon  the  glass  plate,  spread  it  into  a  thin  layer  with 
the  roller,  press  the  ball  of  a  finger  or  thumb  upon  this,  and  then  several 
times  in  succession  along  a  small  strip  of  paper.  This  will  show  how  much 
ink  to  use  to  get  the  best  results,  since  in  your  experiment  the  first  print 
will  probably  be  too  black,  and  the  last  will  certainly  be  too  faint.  Even 
with  about  the  right  ink  surface  a  second  print,  taken  without  reinking, 
is  very  often  better  than  the  first.* 

When  this  simple  technique  is  learned,  prepare  an  inked  surface  large 
enough  to  receive  the  entire  hand,  with  the  fingers  extended  naturally, 
and  print  in  the  same  way,  first  laying  the  hand,  with  a  gentle  pressure, 
upon  the  inked  surface,  and  then  upon  a  sheet  of  paper.  In  most  hands 
the  center  of  the  palm  does  not  naturally  come  in  contact  with  a  flat 
surface  when  the  hand  is  laid  against  it,  and  this  may  be  remedied  by 
pressing  down  upon  the  middle  of  the  hand,  both  upon  the  ink  and  upon 
the  paper.  One  inking  will  usually  make  two  prints,  but  each  time  the 
inked  surface  is  used  it  must  be  first  rubbed  smooth  to  obliterate  the 
impression  of  the  previous  use. 

In  such  a  print  of  the  hand  the  entire  configuration  of  the  palm,  or 
practically  all  of  it,  will  be  shown,  but  the  patterns  upon  the  ends  of  the 
fingers  run  over  the  sides,  that  is,  they  are  drawn  upon  the  surface  of  a 
cylinder,  and  thus  the  print  shows  only  the  middle  part  of  these.  With 
the  thumb,  as  it  is  set  obliquely,  the  matter  is  still  worse,  and  only  the 
outer  side  of  the  pattern  appears.  To  print  the  whole  of  one  of  these 
patterns,  then,  it  is  necessary  to  roll  the  finger  from  one  side  to  the  other, 
first  upon  the  inked  surface,  and  then  upon  the  paper;  and  thus  to  make 
the  hand  prints  complete  rolled  prints  of  the  finger  patterns  should  be 
added  along  the  margin  of  the  sheet,  in  association  with  the  hands  to 

*In  large  police  departments  the  identification  office  is  equipped  with  special 
furniture  for  taking  prints;  a  table  with  a  glass  top,  rollers  made  for  the  purpose  of 
composition  material,  and  so  on.  Where  footprints  are  also  to  be  taken,  the  furniture 
should  include  a  table  with  a  raised  seat  at  one  end,  upon  which  the  subject  should  be 
seated,  as  on  a  boot-black's  "throne,"  to  which  convenient  access  should  be  had  by 
means  of  steps.  These  and  similar  devices  will  naturally  develop  through  the  ingenuity 
of  the  individual  workers,  but  all  that  is  essential,  after  all,  are  the  ink,  the  roller,  the 
paper,  and  the  smooth  plate,  as  here  described. 


Personal  Identification 


which  they  belong,  and  in  the  natural  order.  The  dab  or  plain  impres- 
sions, as  they  are  called,  obtained  while  printing  the  whole  hand,  are  of  the 
greatest  value  in  giving  the  absolutely  correct  order,  and  serve  to  correct 
any  error  in  the  arrangement  of  the  separate  finger  prints. 

Prints  of  the  feet  are  taken  in  much  the  same  way  as  is  the  hand, 
save  that  the  subject  stands  or  sits,  and  the  plate  and  paper  are  spread 
out  on  the  floor.  A  heavy  subject,  when  standing,  is  apt  to  press  too  hard 
and  tends  to  flatten  the  ridges  so  much  as  to  obliterate  the  interspaces 
in  places,  and  on  the  whole  the  sitting  position  is  the  best  for  all  subjects, 
as  the  foot  may  then  be  placed  and  otherwise  manipulated  by  the  one  tak- 
ing the  print.*  Some  pressure  at  the  base  of  the  toes,  as  recommended  for 
the  center  of  the  palm,  is  advisable,  as  it  extends  a  little  the  portion  that 
prints,  and  often  reveals  important  details.  The  separate  toes  cannot 
easily  be  rolled,  and,  although  they  present  excellent  patterns,  so  that  a 
single  toe  pattern  would  suffice  for  a  perfect  identification,  a  case  where 
the  identification  would  depend  upon  it  would  very  seldom  come  up  and 
thus  for  practical  considerations  the  toe  patterns  may  be  neglected.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  outer  edge  of  the  foot,  a  little  beyond  the  tread  area 
(the  part  used  in  an  ordinary  step),  often  shows  important  features,  and 
these  can  be  brought  within  the  limits  of  the  print  by  rolling  the  entire 
foot,  beginning  on  the  outer  edge,  or  this  edge  can  be  printed  separately. 

As  printing  ink  consists  of  lamp-black  ground  up  in  oil  or  vaseline, 
it  does  not  stain  the  skin  like  ordinary  writing  fluid,  and  may  be  easily 
removed  by  any  solvent  for  oil,  such  as  turpentine  or  gasoline.  A  cloth 
moistened  with  one  of  these  will  clean  the  flesh  quickly,  and  ordinary 
soap  and  water,  with  some  little  scrubbing,  will  remove  most  of  it.  A 
dry  cloth  to  wipe  the  surface  immediately  after  it  is  printed  will  save 
the  clothing  and  surrounding  objects. 

If,  now,  a  print  be  compared  with  the  original  surface,  it  will  be 
seen  that,  while  the  one  is  an  exact  duplicate  of  the  other,  even  to  the 
finest  details,  the  print  possesses  the  following  marked  advantages  as  an 
object  for  study  and  comparison: 

1.  In  a  print  the  ridges  are  shown  as  black  lines  traced  upon  a  white 
background,  while  on  the  skin  surface  both  ridges  and  interspaces  have 
the  same  color. 

*YVhere  much  printing  is  to  be  done  it  is  advisable  to  install  a  permanent  stand 
for  the  work.  This  requires  nothing  more  than  a  good  wooden  table,  about  two  and  a 
half  by  four  feet,  and  fitted  with  a  seat  across  one  end,  perhaps  14  inches  high.  For 
the  hand  printing  the  free  part  of  the  table  is  sufficient  while  subject  and  operator 
stand  beside  it;  for  the  feet  the  subject  sits  on  the  box,  with  the  feet  on  the  table.  The 
table  should  be  high  enough  for  the  operator  to  work  comfortably  standing  beside  it, 
and  for  the  convenience  of  the  subject,  steps  should  be  arranged  for  mounting  the  table. 
Needless  to  say,  this  latter  should  be  very  strong,  and  should  not  even  shake  under 
the  weight  of  a  heavy  subject. 


Friction  Skin  and  Friction  Ridges  117 

2.  A  print  shows  the  pattern  spread  out  over  a  perfectly  flat  field, 
while  in  the  real  object  the  surface  presents  a  more  or  less  marked  relief. 
In  a  finger  the  pattern  is  depicted  over  the  surface  of  a  cylinder,  which 
it  is  necessary  to  turn  in  order  to  see  the  whole. 

3.  The  wrinkles  are  a  more  disturbing  element  on  the  actual  skin 
than  in  a  print,  for  in  the  first  they  are  often  deep  grooves,  while  the  very 
means  employed  in  taking  the  print  tend  to  flatten  them  out.     Thus  in  a 
print  the  smaller  wrinkles  are  often  quite  lost,  while  even  the  deepest 
ones  appear  only  as  irregular  breaks  that  do  not  print,  over  which  the 
ridges  may  be  easily  matched. 

4.  There  are  numerous  mechanical  difficulties  in  studying  the  real 
hands;    while  with  the  feet  the  difficulties  are  still  greater.     A  print  is 
spread  out  upon  a  table,  where  it  is  in  the  most  convenient  position  for 
observation. 

5.  To  study  the  actual  hands  the  subject  must  naturally  be  present. 
With  a  collection  of  prints  one  has  the  records  of  any  number  of  individuals, 
any  and  all  of  which  are  instantly  available,  not  only  for  separate  study, 
but  for  comparison. 

6.  A  print,  or  any  part  of  one,  may  be  conveniently  photographed, 
either  at  the  natural  size  or  at  any  required  degree  of  enlargement.     It 
may  in  this  way  be  duplicated  indefinitely  and  sent  to  any  part  of  the 
world.     With  an  enlargement  of  only  a  few  diameters  such  a  photograph 
may  be  used  before  a  jury;   an  especially  good  form  of   use  is  that  of 
projection  with  a  stereopticon.     The  actual  skin  is  not  fitted  for  any  of 
these  uses. 


CHAPTER  II 

STRUCTURE    AND    DEVELOPMENT    OF   FRICTION   RIDGES;     DETAILS    OF    THEIR 
COURSE  AND   ARRANGEMENT 

"Mira  vallecularum  tangentium  in  internet  parte  manus  pedisque, 
praesertim  in  digitorum  extremis  phalangibus  dispositio  flexuraeque  atten- 
tionem  jam  nostram  in  se  trahit"*  —  Purkenje;  Commentatio  de  Examine 
Physiohgico,  etc.;  1823. 

IF  a  small  area  of  friction  skin  be  observed  under  a  lens  having  a  mag- 
nifying power  of  five  or  six  diameters,  or  with  a  strong  reading  glass, 
there  will  be  seen  running  along  each  ridge  a  row  of  minute  depres- 
sions, at  about  equal  distances  apart.  These  are  the  sweat  pores,  or  mouths 
of  the  sweat  glands.  The  ridges,  too,  are  not  generally  continuous  across 
the  entire  palm,  but  are  broken  into  sections  of  varying  length,  the  shorter 
ones  having  but  two  or  three  sweat  pores,  and  some  but  a  single  one. 
In  this  latter  case,  technically  called  an  island,  the  shape  of  the  ridge  is 
circular  or  oval,  and  the  sweat  pore  is  in  or  near  the  center;  and  in  ridges 
of  two  or  three  sweat  pores  the  appearance  often  suggests,  by  its  indented 
border,  a  fusion  of  as  many  separate  islands,  each  with  its  own  pore. 
Along  the  transition  region  between  the  friction  skin  and  the  usual  type 
this  appearance  is  frequent,  and  the  ridges  are  seen  to  begin  as  separate 
islands,  placed  in  a  row,  gradually  melting  into  one  another  until  the 
typical  ridge  formation  is  attained.  An  especially  convenient  point  to 
observe  this  is  along  the  outer  edge  of  the  second  joint  of  the  left  index 
finger. 

Thus  (1)  from  the  existence  of  the  sweat  pores  along  the  ridges  at  ap- 
proximately equal  intervals,  (2)  from  the  presence  of  very  short  ridges, 
the  so-called  "islands,"  containing  a  single  sweat  pore;  and  of  others, 
plainly  made  up  of  two  or  three  islands,  and  showing  a  sweat  pore  for 
each  unit,  and  (3)  from  the  appearance  of  the  ridges  at  their  beginnings 
on  the  transition  area,  where  they  are  clearly  seen  to  consist  of  rows  of 
islands  in  all  degrees  of  fusion,  and  where  all  stages  are  seen,  from  distinct 
islands  to  a  completely  formed  ridge,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  friction 

*"We  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  remarkable  disposition  and  windings  of 
the  tangential  furrows  on  the  inner  side  of  hand  and  foot,  and  especially  upon  the  distal 
phalanges  of  the  digits."  [Free  translation  of  the  above.  The  original  stands:  "The 
remarkable  disposition  ....  now  draws  our  attention  to  itself,"  etc.  Galton  seems 
quite  right  in  questioning  the  meaning  of  the  word  "tangentium"  here.) 

118 


Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges  1191 

ridges  are  formed  by  the  fusion  in  rows  of  minute  round  or  oval  structures,, 
each  having  a  single  sweat  pore  in  its  center,  so  that  the  sweat  pores  occurring 
along  a  ridge  indicate  the  number  of  separate  unit  islands  of  which  it  i& 
composed. 

This  explanation  of  the  composition  of  the  ridges  is  confirmed  by" 
a  comparison  with  the  condition  found  in  other  animals.  While  in  monkeys; 
the  palmer  and  plantar  surfaces  are  covered  with  friction  ridges 
as  in  man,  but  larger  and  heavier,  there  are  many  lower  mammals  in 
which  these  areas  are  still  covered  with  the  separate  units;  there  are 
also  some  in  which  the  ridges  are  found  in  the  act  of  forming,  and  cover 
the  most  prominent  surfaces  only,  while  the  hollows  show  separate  units, 
often  not  definitely  arranged.  Again,  in  some  there  are  found  no  actual 
ridges,  that  is,  no  fusion  between  separate  units,  but  over  the  raised  pads; 
of  the  palms  and  fingers  the  units  are  arranged  in  whorls,  loops,  and 
the  other  patterns  characteristic  of  the  ridges  covering  these  places  in. 
the  higher  forms. 

Going  back  again  to  the  most  primitive  case,  where  the  surface  is- 
covered  with  separate,  unit  islands,  without  definite  arrangement,  there 
is  much  to  suggest  that  the  units  themselves  are  modifications  of  the 
scales  with  which  the  bodies  of  typical  reptiles  are  clothed,  and  which 
the  earliest  mammals  still  retained.  At  a  later  time  the  scales  were  lost 
over  the  rest  of  the  body,  but  were  retained  in  this  modified  form  over 
the  palmar  and  plantar  surfaces,  where  they  were  eventually  transformed 
into  friction  ridges. 

The  general  arrangement  of  these  ridges,  the  varying  direction  of 
their  course  over  different  areas,  and  especially  the  patterns,  with  their 
endless  varieties,  although  they  may  seem  at  first  to  be  entirely  the  result 
of  chance,  correspond,  nevertheless,  to  a  fundamental  plan,  which,  like 
so  many  other  problems  of  human  structure,  finds  its  explanation  in 
Comparative  Anatomy. 

To  begin  with,  the  more  primitive  walking  mammals,  designed  for 
life  on  the  ground,  and  in  burrows  and  clefts  in  the  rocks,  developed  on 
the  contact  surface  of  each  foot  eleven  raised  pads  or  cushions,  to  bear 
the  weight  of  the  body  and  furnish  the  necessary  elasticity;  and  in  their 
modern  representatives,  like  the  squirrels,  the  mice,  and  the  shrew-moles, 
this  condition  is  retained  and  may  be  easily  studied.  These  eleven  pads 
run  across  the  paw  in  three  transverse  rows,  (1)  a  proximal  row  near  the 
wrist,  (2)  a  middle  row  at  the  base  of  the  digits,  and  (3)  a  terminal,  or 
distal,  row  on  the  end  joints  of  the  digits.  The  proximal  row  consists, 
of  two  pads,  the  thenar,  on  the  inner  or  thumb  side,  and  the  hypothenar, 
on  the  outer  or  little  finger  side.  The  four  pads  of  the  middle  row  are 
placed  just  beneath  the  four  intervals  between  the  digits,  and  are  con- 
veniently called  the  interdigitals  (between  the  digits),  and  are  numbered 


120 


Personal  Identification 


FIGURE  35.  Diagram  showing  palmar  surface  of  fore-foot  and  digits  in  Microtus, 
a  field  mouse.  The  pads  are  rounded  eminences,  surrounded  by  folds  as  indicated. 
The  triangular  areas  are  the  points  where  the  folds  come  together,  forming  deltas. 
The  [entire  surface,  including  pads  and  folds,  is  covered  by  separate  epidermic  units, 
not  yet  united  in  rows  to  form  ridges  These  are  not  shown  here.  (From  the  Biolo- 
gical_Bulletin,  by  permission.) 


Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges  121 

from  I  —  IV,  beginning  on  the  inner  side.  The  pads  on  the  ends  of  the 
digits  are  naturally  five  in  number,  and  are  termed  digital  or  apical  (1  —  5). 

These  eleven  pads  are  found  to  be  surrounded  by  folds  of  skin,  two, 
three  or  four  about  each  pad,  and  so  arranged  as  to  form  a  slight  depres- 
sion or  pocket  for  the  reception  of  the  pad.  At  the  points  of  contact  of 
each  two  of  the  folds,  they  are  prolonged  to  form  a  third  edge,  running 
away  from  the  triangular  pocket,  so  that  the  whole  structure,  composed 
of  the  two  edges  which  help  to  enclose  the  pad,  and  the  third  edge,  the 
prolongation  away  from  the  pad,  makes  a  three-pointed  star,  called  a 
triradius.  The  region  where  these  three  folds  meet,  is  a  delta* 

This  arrangement  is  seen  in  its  most  typical  form  in  connection  with 
the  pads  on  the  palm  or  sole,  where  in  all  cases  but  one,  the  folds,  and 
consequently  the  deltas,  are  three  in  number;  but  in  the  case  of  the  third 
interdigital,  placed  beneath  the  interval  between  the  third  and  fourth 
digits,  there  are  four  folds  and  four  deltas. 

The  apical  pads  are  peculiar  in  having  but  two  deltas,  while  the  folds 
coming  up  from  them  and  running  toward  the  end  of  the  digit  unite  to 
form  a  large  loop,  enclosing  the  pad. 

All  these  surfaces,  the  pads,  the  folds,  and  the  spaces  between  them, 
are  covered  by  epidermic  units,  each  with  a  sweat  pore,  and  where  they 
come  into  constant  contact  with  external  objects,  as  on  the  surfaces  of 
the  pads,  they  show  the  usual  tendency  to  arrange  themselves  in  rows  and 
fuse  into  ridges.  In  mammals  that  walk  on  the  ground  the  ridges  on  the 
pads  run  transversely  across  them,  that  is,  in  the  direction  best  suited 
to  cause  friction  and  prevent  slipping;  but  in  certain  animals  that  live 
in  the  trees,  and  are  in  structure  part  way  between  these  terrestrial  forms 
and  the  arboreal  monkeys,  the  ridges  upon  the  pads  form  themselves  into 
concentric  circles  or  ovals,  the  center  coinciding  with  the  middle  of  the 
pad,  where  it  is  the  most  elevated.  This  is  the  first  appearance  of  true 
patterns,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  they  are  in  the  form  of  whorls,  and 
that  they  occur  on  all  of  the  eleven  pads. 

The  next  step  is  shown  in  those  monkeys  which  are  wholly  arboreal. 
Here  the  pads  are  reduced  in  height,  so  that  the  palms  and  soles  are  nearly 
flat,  and  all  parts  of  them  come  into  contact  with  the  tree  boughs  and 
other  external  objects.  Thus  the  entire  surface  becomes  covered  with  ridges, 
but,  instead  of  running  straight  across,  the  newly  added  ridges  retain  the  direc- 
tion of  the  folds  that  originally  surrounded  the  pads.  Thus  we  now  have, 

*The  term  delta,  which  suggests  a  triangle,  was  introduced  by  Galton,  and  evidently 
includes  merely  the  small  area  where  the  three  folds  meet.  The  term  triradius  intro- 
duced by  one  of  the  authors,  and  now  extensively  used  in  anthropology,  suggests  a 
three-pointed  star,  and  includes  both  the  delta  and  its  three  radiating  lines.  In  finger- 
print  technique  it  is  necessary  to  use  a  definite  point,  the  meeting  place  of  the  three 
ridges  in  the  center  of  the  delta,  and  this  point  is  spoken  of  as  the  poini  of  delta. 


12-2 


Personal  Identification 


FIGURE  36.  Diagram  showing  condition  of  palmar  surface  of  hand  and  digits  in 
Macacus,  an  East  Indian  monkey.  The  surface  is  flattened,  but  the  moulding  of  the 
ancestral  relief  is  indicated  by  the  arrangement  of  the  ridges,  which  cover  the  entire 
surface.  In  the  fourth  digit  the  pattern  is  represented  in  the  first  stage  of  degeneracy, 
which  is  brought  about  by  the  loss  of  one  of  the  deltas,  converting  the  primitive  whorl 
into  a  loop.  This  is  sometimes  found  in  the  apical  patterns  of  monkeys,  and  is  given 
here  in  one  of  the  digits  to  show  the  tendency.  (From  the  Biological  Bulletin,  by 
permission.) 


Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges 


upon  the  flattened  palmar  and  plantar  surfaces,  not  a  chance  arrangement 
af  ridges  running  in  all  directions,  but  a  picture  or  drawing  of  the  paw  surface 


FIGURE  37.  Diagram  taken  directly  from  the  print  of  the  right  palm  of  a  young 
white  woman  (English  and  French  ancestry,  H.  H.  W.  Coll.,  No.  90),  showing  rather 
more  than  the  average  number  of  the  original  patterns.  The  two  on  the  thumb  side  of 
the  palm  are  absent,  although  they  appear  in  others  figured  in  this  chapter.  Aside  from 
these,  however,  the  remaining  patterns,  as  seen  in  the  paw  of  the  monkey,  or  as  repre- 
sented by  pads  in  the  paw  of  the  field  mouse,  can  be  readily  located.  In  the  great  ma- 
jority of  human  hands  the  loss  of  the  original  characters  has  proceeded  much  farther, 
and  the  palm  is  more  or  less  free  from  definite  patterns.  (From  the  Biological  Bulletin, 
by  permission.) 

found  in  their  terrestrial  ancestors,  with  every  detail  of  the  pads  and  their  sur- 
rounding folds.  The  pads  are  indicated  by  the  patterns;  the  folds  by  lines 
and  systems  of  ridges  running  at  each  point  in  the  old  direction,  with  the 


124  Personal  Identification 


friradii  and  deltas  as  before.  The  flattening  has  simply  removed  the  third 
dimension,  and  the  relief  has  become  a  drawing. 

As  has  already  been  shown,  these  ridged  friction-skin  surfaces  are 
of  great  functional  importance  to  the  smaller  monkeys,  where  the  ridges 
are  large  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  animal  and  where  their  life  con- 
tinually depends  upon  the  certainty  of  their  grasp.  When,  however, 
as  has  happened  in  the  great  apes,  and  in  man,  the  body  weight  has  become 
so  considerable  that  skin  ridges  are  of  little  value  in  grasping,  their  par- 
ticular arrangement  becomes  of  no  account,  and  is  allowed  to  degenerate. 
The  patterns  placed  upon  the  raised  cushions,  and  still  of  much  value, 
in  their  whorled  arrangement,  in  a  little  tree  animal  weighing  ten  or  twenty 
pounds  are  no  longer  any  better  than  ridges  running  straight  across  the 
palm,  and  are  found  in  all  stages  of  degeneracy  or,  more  frequently,  are 
entirely  gone.  Occasionally,  however,  a  human  palm  may  be  found  in 
which  all  of  the  eleven  patterns  are  present,  each  in  its  proper  position,  and 
the  five  apical  patterns,  which  still  have  some  little  use  in  handling  small 
objects,  are  almost  always  present.  Certain  of  the  folds,  too,  with  their 
associated  deltas,  are  nearly,  or  quite,  constant,  'and  are  made  use  of  in 
this  book  as  the  basis  for  the  classification  used. 

This  sketch  of  the  evolutionary  history  of  the  palmar  and  plantar 
surfaces  is  necessarily  a  brief  one,  but  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  technical 
papers  which,  during  the  past  dozen  years,  have  elucidated  this  hitherto 
neglected  subject,  and  put  the  history  of  the  friction  skin  and  its  ridges  on 
a  plane  with  other  departments  of  comparative  anatomy.  To  those  who 
prefer  a  rational  explanation  for  such  phenomena,  and  do  not  like  to  refer 
it  all  to  chance,  this  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  features  found  in  the 
friction  ridges  may  prove  of  interest.* 

*  Something  of  the  vast  array  of  facts  connected  with  this  subject  are  brought 
out  in  the  writings  of  Miss  Inez  Whipple  (Mrs.  H.  H.  Wilder),  Otto  Schlaginhaufen 
and  W.  Kidd.  The  last-named  author  has  also  contributed  largely  to  the  study  of 
hair  direction  on  the  bodies  of  man  and  other  mammals,  a  matter  which  occasionally 
has  some  bearing  on  identity.  De  Meijere  has  found  proof  of  the  former  coat  of  scales 
possessed  by  mammals  through  the  study  of  the  arrangement  of  the  hair  in  the  skin 
of  mammals.  For  the  benefit  of  those  who  wish  to  continue  this  subject  further,  the 
following  books  and  papers  are  recommended: 
Whipple,  Inez  L.,  1904.  The  Ventral  Surface  of  the  Mammalian  Chiridium,  with 

especial  reference  to  the  Condition  found  in   Man.     Published  in  the  Zeitschrift 

fur  Morphologic  und  Anthropologie,  Bd.  VII,  pp.  261-368,  54  text-figures  and 

two  plates. 
Schlaginhaufen,  O.,  1905.     Das  Hautleistensystem  der  Primatenplanta,  mit  Beruck- 

sichtigung  der  Palma.     Morphol.  Jahrbuch,  Bd.  XXXIII,  pp.  577-671,  and  Bd. 

XXXIV,  pp.  1-125.     194  text-figures. 
Kidd,  Walter,  1907.     The  Sense  of  Touch  in  Mammals  and  Birds,  with  special  reference 

to  the  Papillary  Ridges.     Published  by  A.  and  C.  Black,  London.     176  pp.,Il74 

text-figures. 


Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges 


125 


Owing  to  the  composite  structure  of  the  friction  ridges,  and  the  ten- 
dency of  the  units  to  combine  in  various  ways,  or  to  remain  separated  in 
places,  a  patch  of  friction  skin,  even  where  there  is  no  pattern,  is  by  no 
means  a  monotonous  succession  of  parallel  lines,  but  encounters  variations 
at  every  point  which  render  such  a  patch  as  individual  and  incapable  of 
being  duplicated  as  is  a  part  which,  by  some  unusual  and  conspicuous  curve 
or  loop,  would  much  more  readily  arrest  the  attention.  We  have  already 
referred  to  the  frequent  occurrence  of  breaks  in  a  ridge,  places  where  the 
original  units  do  not  fuse;  there  are  also  cases  where  unitsjbelonging  to  two 


FIGURE  38.  The  "Gallon  details";  these,  which  Galton  first  called  minutiae,  are 
the  most  common  departures  from  a  straight,  continuous,  and  parallel  course,  that 
occur  in  friction  ridges.  The  presence  and  location  of  these  and  similar  peculiarities 
may  be  resorted  to  when  comparing  single  patterns  that  are  otherwise  very  similar, 
or  when  studying  the  characters  of  a  small  area  of  friction  skin  anywhere.  (See  Figures 
39-41  following.) 

adjacent  ridges  fuse  across  the  interspace,  forming  a  fork.  These  varia- 
tions, first  described  by  Sir  Francis  Galton  under  the  term  minutiae,  have 
now  become  known  as  the  Galton  details,  and  are  often,  in  cases  where  there 
is  a  comparison  between  two  similar  patterns,  or  in  cases  concerning  a 
little  patch  of  friction  skin  without  a  definite  pattern,  of  the  first  importance 
in  identification. 

Kidd,  Walter,  1903.     The  Direction  of  Hair  in  Animals  and  Man.     Published  by  A. 

and  C.  Black,  London.     154  pp.,  33  text-figures. 
De  Meijere,  J.  C.  H.,  1894.     Ueber  die  Haare  der  Saugethiere,  besonders  iiber  ihre 

Anordnung.     Morph.  Jahrbuch,  Bd.  XXI,  pp.  312-424.     41  text-figures. 

A  complete  bibliography  of  this  extremely  large  field  would  be  quite  impossible 
here,  but  much  of  it  is  given  in  the  references  contained  in  the  works  here  cited.  The 
papers  given  here,  especially  those  by  Miss  Whipple  and  Kidd,  are  recommended  to 
those  who  wish  to  learn  the  underlying  conditions  for  the  formation  of  the  friction  ridges 
and  the  patterns  as  they  occur  in  man. 


12(5 


Personal  Identification 


The  most  frequent  of  these  is  probably  the  end,  where  a  ridge  simply 
stops,  allowing  those  on  its  two  sides  to  close  up.  A.  fork  is  where  one  ridge 
becomes  two,  which  continue  in  contact  with  each  other.  When  a  fork 
•exists  for  a  short  course,  perhaps  the  length  of  a  dozen  units  or  so,  at  the 
«nd  of  which  the  two  ridges  melt  into  one  again,  there  is  formed  an  in- 
dosure.  Short  ridges,  composed  of  a  few  units,  are  of  common  occurrence, 
and  when  these  are  so  short  as  to  contain  but  a  single  unit  or  so  the  ridge 
is  termed  an  island.  In  Galton's  original  definition,  an  "island"  seems 


FIGURE  39a-b.  Small  squares  taken  from  the  prints  of  the  left  hands  of  two  in- 
dividuals (H.  H.  W.  Coll:  a,  No.  346;  6,  No.  335).  The  squares  measure  22mm.  on 
the  edge,  and  are  taken  from  a  particularly  monotonous  and  featureless  area,  at  the 
base  of  the  metacarpal  of  the  thumb,  near  the  wrist  margin.  As  shown  here,  the  speci- 
mens are  practically  natural  size. 

to  have  been  any  short  ridge,  but  it  is  better  to  use  the  term  so  far  as 
possible  in  those  cases  only  in  which  the  ridge  is  a  single  unit. 

Patterns,  where  the  ridges  form  loops  or  whorls,  or  some  similar  figure, 
about  a  definite  core,  cover  large  portions  of  the  friction  skin,  and  are 
individually  so  different  that  even  a  novice  seldom  finds  two  that  he  cannot 
easily  distinguish;  in  other  regions,  where  the  ridges  run  straight  and 
parallel,  and  where  there  seems  nothing  distinctive  to  mark  the  skin  of  one 
man  as  different  from  that  of  any  one  else,  if  the  attention  be  turned  to 
the  details  of  the  separate  ridges  one  finds  here  a  field  for  an  unlimited 
amount  of  individual  variation,  beyond  all  chance  of  being  duplicated. 

To  show  this  a  small  square  area  was  cut  out  from  the  same  place  in 
the  hand  prints  of  two  individuals,  as  shown  here  in  Figure  39,  the  place 
selected  being  one  which  has  never  occasioned  any  special  interest  among 
investigators,  and  where  the  ridges  run  monotonously  in  straight  or  slightly 
curved  parallels.  This  area  lies  near  the  wrist  margin  of  the  friction  skin, 
about  over  the  proximal  end  of  the  metacarpal  bone  of  the  thumb.  Some 
slight  differences  are  seen  in  the  print  of  the  natural  size,  but  by  enlarging 
each  about  1\  times  (Figure  40)  the  entire  surface  seems  covered  with 


Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges 


127 


details  which  are  far  from  any  correspondence  in  the  two  samples.  By  a 
pure  coincidence  each  bears  a  small  scar  near  the  center,  across  and  over 
which  the  ridges  have  reunited,  matching  fairly  well.  The  scar  in  a  is 
that  of  a  clean  cut,  healed  by  first  intention;  that  of  b  shows  the  result  of 
a  more  extended  injury,  with  attendant  suppuration.  Both  were,  however, 
of  a  trivial  nature,  yet  serve  to  show  how  such  injuries  leave  their  mark. 

More  important  for  our  present  inquiry  are  the  striking  differences 
in  the  frequency  of  special  details,  and  in  the  relative  size  of  the  ridges  in 
the  two  specimens;  both  points  are  best  illustrated  by  the  detailed  sketch 


FIGURE  40  a-b.  The  squares  shown  in  the  preceding  figure  enlarged  by  photo- 
graphy 2^  diameters.  The  richness  of  special  features  in  b  as  compared  with  a  may 
be  easily  seen.  The  circles  indicate  the  region  selected  for  still  greater  enlargement 
in  the  next  figures. 

of  the  more  limited  area  enclosed  by  the  circles.  In  these  a  shows  13  ridges, 
and  6  details,  5  being  ends,  and  1  an  anomaly  without  name;  b  shows,  in 
an  area  of  the  same  size,  18  ridges  (we  count  in  both  cases  the  ridges  just 
appearing  in  the  field,  as  well  as  broken  pieces),  with  no  less  than  17  de- 
tails. Of  these  13  are  ends,  2  are  islands,  and  2  interruptions,  details 
not  included  in  the  Galton  details  as  such,  but  conspicuous  features,  not- 
withstanding. The  two  hands  from  which  these  samples  were  taken  are 
of  the  same  size. 

Thus  here,  where  we  are  purposely  studying  friction  skin  in  its  least 
individual  aspect;  in  a  region  known  to  be  the  most  featureless  and  mo- 
notonous in  the  succession  of  ridges,  a  careful  scrutiny  of  the  prints,  espe- 
cially when  aided  by  a  slight  magnification,  shows  such  marked  differences 
that  even  a  beginner  would  have  no  trouble  in  distinguishing  them  at  once. 


128  Personal  Identification 


If,  instead  of  such  an  area,  one  were  selected  for  comparison  where  the 
ridges  are  disposed  in  the  form  of  a  complicated  pattern,  and  where,  even 
at  the  natural  size  the  dissimilarity  is  apparent  to  every  one,  it  is  plain  that 
the  chance  of  confusion  would  be  very  much  less,  and  the  comparison  far 
simpler. 

However,  quite  aside  from  patterns,  that  concern  whole  systems  of 
ridges,  the  Gallon  details,  the  ends,  forks,  islands  and  so  on,  are  so  numerous 


a 

FIGURE  41a-b.     Further  enlargements  of  the  friction  skin  shown  in  Figures 
39  and  40. 

(a)  Detail  of  the  area  included  in  the  circle  in  Figure  40a.  Counting  from 
the  left,  of  the  13  ridges,  ridge  4  barely  comes  into  the  field,  ridge  9  is  made  up 
of  short  pieces,  and  ridge  12  is  incomplete.  The  entire  field  is  below  the  average 
in  the  number  of  features  shown,  yet  displays  five  ends,  besides  a  nondescript, 
but  conspicuous  detail  on  ridge  7. 

and  so  variable  that  even  in  a  small  area  a  duplication  is  impossible.  As 
the  ridges  are  formed  by  the  fusion  of  rows  of  units  there  is  a  possibility 
that  during  the  "formation  a  break  might  have  occurred  between  any  two 
of  the  units  as  marked  by  sweat  pores,  forming  an  end  or  an  interruption. 
It  is  equally  possible  that  islands  or  short  ridges  might  have  occurred  at 
any  point,  or  that  a  unit,  instead  of  fusing  lengthwise  with  its  next  neigh- 
bor, might  happen  to  fuse  across  with  the  adjacent  unit  on  one  side  and 
form  a  fork.  Although  it  has  been  shown  that  the  influence  of  heredity 
from  parent  to  child  is  operative  in  the  formation  of  similar  patterns, 
viewed  as  a  whole,  yet  there  is  absolutely  no  indication  of  such  hereditary 


Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges 


129 


control  of  the  details  of  the  individual  ridges,  and  so  far  as  we  know  all 
the  infinite  possibilities  in  the  formation  of  the  ridges  are  widely  open  in 
each  individual  case,  so  that  it  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  no  two  people  in 
the  world  can  have,  even  over  a  small  area,  the  same  set  of  details,  similarly 
related  to  the  individual  units.  Of  course  this  is  not  capable  of  actual  proof, 


13    16 


(b)  Detail  of  the  area  included  in  the  circle  in  Figure  40b.  Including 
islands,  and  the  tips  of  ridges  along  the  margin,  the  ridge  count  is  18,  showing 
a  6ner  friction  skin  than  in  a;  there  are  also  17  details.  Thirteen  of  these 
are  ends,  two  are  islands,  and  two,  interruptions,  which,  if  counted  as  ends  in  the 
usual  way,  would  count  as  four  details  instead  of  two. 

Neither  forks,  nor  inclosures,  although  of  frequent  occurrence,  are  found  in 
either  of  these  specimens. 

any  more  than  it  can  be  absolutely  proved  that  when  a  piece  of  written 
manuscript  is  torn  in  two  it  will  not  fit  exactly  any  other  piece  than  the 
one  from  which  it  was  separated;  but  the  two  cases  are  about  equal  in 
the  degree  of  probability.  The  only  possible  confusion  might  result  from 
an  area  so  small  and  so  featureless  as  to  show  nothing  but  complete  and 
parallel  ridges,  without  details,  but  as  far  as  our  experience  goes,  such  an 
area  could  not  be  much  larger  than  the  ones  shown  in  Figure  39,  and  cer- 
tainly could  never  occur  in  connection  with  the  formation  of  a  pattern, 


130  Personal  Identification 


where  the  ridges  are  called  upon  to  make  eccentric  turns,  and  to  fill  up 
spaces  of  irregular  shape. 

As  to  the  invariability  of  the  friction  skin  throughout  a  man's  life- 
time, the  second  of  the  essential  points  in  any  system  of  absolute  identi- 
fication; although  the  first  serious  work  in  the  field  is  now  scarcely  three 
decades  old,  something  has  been  done  in  the  way  of  direct  observation, 
W,hile  important  light  has  been  thrown  on  the  subject  by  the  study  of  the 
development  of  the  ridges  in  the  human  embryo.  The  results  from  both 
sources  of  information  point  definitely  to  one  and  the  same  conclusion, 
namely,  that  there  is  and  can  be  absolutely  no  change  during  life,  either  in 
the  patterns,  the  individual  ridges  composing  them,  nor  in  the  details  of  the 
ridges.  Thus  a  system  of  identification  founded  on  the  friction  skin  possesses 
this  second  of  the  attributes  required  of  a  perfect  system,  the  permanence  of  the 
'marks  throughout  life. 

The  first  line  of  proof  offered  as  a  demonstration  of  this  is  the  obvious 
one  of  collecting  and  comparing  the  prints  of  a  given  individual  at  various 
times  during  his  life,  and  especially  during  the  period  of  growth,  when, 
if  ever,  changes  would  be  expected  to  occur.  For  this  we  present  here 
enlarged  prints  of  the  pattern  of  a  little  girl's  right  thumb,  taken  at  the 
following  ages:  Four  years,  eleven  months  (Figure  42a);  six  years,  eight 
months  (Figure  42&);  eight  years,  eight  months  (Figure  42c);  ten  years,  six 
months  (Figure  42d);  twelve  years,  six  months  (Figure  42e);  fourteen 
years,  six  months  (Figure  42/). 

From  these  enlargements,  all  of  which  are  shown  at  the  same  magni- 
fication (2x),  one  has  the  opportunity  to  acquaint  oneself  with  the  individ- 
ual ridges  and  with  their  details,  and  the  reader  can  convince  himself 
of  the  truth  of  our  assertion  concerning  the  permanence  of  the  record. 
This  special  case  is  excellent  for  the  purpose  because  of  the  presence  of 
many  ridge  rudiments,  or  perhaps  incipient  ridges,  that  is,  partially  formed 
ridges,  without  sweat  pores,  or  at  least  without  many,  placed  in  the 
intervals  between  the  normally  formed  ridges,  as  though  they  had  either 
been  suppressed  during  early  development,  or  else  were  new  ridges  in  the  act 
of  formation.  These  objects  have  occasioned  some  speculation  on  the  part 
of  those  who  have  studied  the  embryology  of  these  parts,  and  the  sug- 
gestion naturally  arises  in  either  case,  if  this  process,  whether  of  growth 
or  of  shrinkage,  may  not  go  on  slowly  during  life,  resulting  ultimately  in 
their  disappearance  or  in  their  interpolation  among  the  others  as  complete 
ridges.  Perhaps  in  our  present  state  of  knowledge  concerning  develop- 
mental processes  it  might  be  best  not  to  absolutely  deny  the  possibility 
of  some  change  in  these  structures  before  birth,  or  during  infancy,  yet,  as 
shown  here,  no  change,  either  progressive  or  retrogressive,  has  shown  it- 
self between  the  ages  of  four  and  fourteen,  which  includes  the  larger  part 
of  the  growth  period,  when  we  might  most  expect  such  changes  to  occur. 


Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges 


131 


D 


E  F 

FIGURE  42.     (A),  Print  of  right  thumb  of  a  little  girl,  Ruth  E   P.,  taken 
at  the  age  of  four  years,  eleven  months.     Enlarged  two  diameters. 

(b)  Same  as  (A),  and  at  the  same  enlargement.     Age,  six  years,  eight  months. 

(c)  Same  as  (A),  and  at  the  same  enlargement.     Age,  eight  years,  eight  months. 

(d)  Same  as  (A),  and  at  the  same  enlargement.     Age,  ten  years,  six  months. 

(e)  Same  as  (A),  and  at  the  same  enlargement.     Age,  twelve  years,  six  months. 
(/)   Same  as  (A),  and  at  the  same  enlargement.     Age,  fourtem  years,  six  months. 


132  Personal  Identification 


Should  it  ever  be  found,  however,  contrary  to  present  probability,  that 
these  incomplete  ridges  do  change,  it  would  not  injure  the  effectiveness 
of  the  system,  since  they  are  rather  unusual  formations,  always  minute  and 
inconspicuous,  and  would  not  affect  in  the  slightest  the  larger  configura- 
tions, such  as  the  patterns,  deltas,  main  lines,  and  so  on,  upon  which  the 
identification  is  mainly  based. 

Naturally  the  observations  on  permanence  including  the  longest 
interval  of  time  are  those  collected  and  published  by  Sir  Francis  Galton, 
the  originator  of  the  use  of  finger  prints  as  means  of  identification.  His 
investigations  concerned  the  finger  prints  of  some  twenty-five  persons,  the 
time  intervals  ranging  from  12  to  37  years.*  The  ages  of  life  under  obser- 
vation included  every  year  from  two  to  79,  yet,  in  all  of  the  separate  de- 
tails which  came  under  observation,  514  separate  points  in  all,  there  was  but 
one  which  was  apparently  different  at  different  ages.  This  was  a  case  of  the 
right  thumb  of  a  boy,  taken  at  the  age  of  two,  and  again  at  13,  and  figured 
in  "Finger  Prints,"  on  Plate  13.f  In  this  pair  43  separate  details,  forks, 
ends,  islands,  etc.,  are  examined  and  marked  by  numbers  for  easy  refer- 
ence, and  in  42  of  these  there  is  a  complete  correspondence  between  the 
two  ages,  eleven  years  apart;  in  the  43d,  however,  there  was  a  consider- 
able discrepancy.  At  about  the  middle  of  an  upper  ridge,  curving  over 
the  pattern,  there  is  seen,  in  the  child  of  two,  a  definite  forking,  producing 
a  new  ridge,  which  continues  to  the  edge  of  the  print.  Of  this  extra  ridge, 
in  the  older  boy,  not  a  trace  remains;  it  is  gone,  fork  and  all.  Considering 
the  infancy  of  the  first  of  these  prints  it  is  here  possible  that  we  are  dealing 
with  one  of  the  suppressed  ridges,  shown  in  the  little  girl  above  illustrated; 
and  it  is  possible  that,  although  there  is  shown  no  loss  of  any  of  these  after 
the  age  of  four,  one  may  now  and  then  disappear  at  an  earlier  age.  This 
possibility  is  strengthened  by  a  careful  examination  of  the  print,  as  given 
by  Galton,  since,  although  the  print  is  poor,  one  can  see  that  the  upper 
of  the  two  ridges  formed  by  the  fork  is  extremely  delicate  and  thin,  and 
might  easily  disappear,  giving  the  remaining  one  opportunity  to  straighten 
out,  and  become  absolutely  parallel  to  the  adjacent  ones,  as  appears  in 
the  boy  of  13. 

Galton's  latest  and  most  conclusive  study  of  the  permanence  of  ridge 
detail  was  made  upon  the  finger  impressions  of  eight  Hindus,  printed  the 

*Probably  the  longest  interval  during  which  the  changeless  nature  of  a  finger  print 
has  thus  far  been  noticed  is  in  the  prints  of  Sir  William  Herschel,  from  whom  Galton 
got  his  first  inspiration.  In  his  book,  published  in  1916,  Herschel  presents  fac-similes 
of  certain  of  his  finger  prints  taken  at  three  successive  intervals:  in  1859,  at  the  age  of 
26;  in  1877,  when  44;  and  in  1916,  at  the  age  of  83.  Needless  to  say,  no  change  can 
be  found  in  any  of  these,  although  they  cover  an  interval  of  fifty-seven  years,  the  longest 
yet  on  record. 

fGalton,  F.;     Finger  Prints.     (216  pages.)     Publ.  MacMillan,  London,  1892. 


Structure  and  Development  of.  Friction  Ridges 


133 


first  time  in  1878  and  next  in  1892.*  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  at  the  second 
printing  the  subjects  were,  many  of  them,  quite  old  men,  who  naturally 
did  not  furnish  very  good  prints,  he  found  in  two  fingers  of  each,  which 
were  all  he  had,  no  discrepancy.  The  eight  best  sets  out  of  the  sixteen  he 
made  the  subject  of  very  special  investigation,  which  he  published  in  1893 
as  a  supplement  to  his  work  of  the  previous  year,  and  reported  as  follows : 


No.  of  the 
person 

Finger 
printed 
from 

Number  of 
Agreements 

Points  of 
Disagreement 

Pattern 

I 
II 
III 

Fore 
Middle 
Middle 

9 
5 
21 

None 
None 
None 

Loop 
Loop 
Whorl 

IV 

Fore 

19 

None 

Whorl 

V 
VI 
VII 
VIII 

Fore 
Fore 
Middle 
Fore 

7 
19 
15 
30 

None 
None 
None 
None 

Loop 
Loop 
Loop 
Whorl 

Total 

125 

None 

Average 

15.6 

Thus,  out  of  the  125  points  of  resemblance,  after  a  time  interval  of 
fourteen  years,  he  found  no  differences;  or,  adding  these  to  the  389  pre- 
viously reported,  he  investigated  514  details,  occurring  after  intervals 
of  twelve  years  or  more,  and  found  but  the  single  case  in  which  the 
correspondence  was  not  exact. 

The  testimony  of  embryology,  although  as  yet  this  subject  has  not 
received  the  attention  it  deserves,  is  strongly  corroborative  of  the  idea  of 
persistence,  for  at  the  earliest  stage  at  which  friction  ridges  can  be  recog- 
nized they  appear  simultaneously  over  the  entire  surface,  covering  it  with 
a  pattern  quite  of  the  adult  type.  This  occurs  at  about  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  month  of  intra-uterine  life,  when  the  entire  embryo  is  a  little 
smaller  than  a  new-born  kitten,  yet  already  the  external  details  are  fully 
formed.  The  hands,  with  each  finger  joint  defined,  could  be  drawn  in 
outline  within  the  limits  of  a  common  copper  cent,  but  the  palmar  surface 
of  both  palm  and  fingers  bears  already  the  mark  of  each  ridge,  without 
doubt  the  very  pattern  which  it  is  intended  to  carry  throughout  life. 

This  method  of  the  sudden  and  direct  shaping  of  the  final  ridges, 
without  a  preliminary  period  with  separate  units,  is  rather  unusual  in  the 
development  of  an  animal,  since  generally  the  embryo  traces  the  important 
points  in  its  evolutionary  history,  assuming  in  turn  the  successive  stages 
in  the  order  in  which  they  probably  appeared  in  the  course  of  evolution. 
*Galton,  F.;  Decipherment  of  Blurred  Finger-Prints.  MacMillan,  London,  1893. 
A  supplementary  chapter  to  "Finger-Points,"  published  separately. 


Personal  Identification 


Thus,  at  an  earlier  stage  the  human  embryo  possesses  the  gill-slits  and 
pairs  of  aortic  arches  characteristic  of  fishes;  and  the  respiratory  and  circu- 
latory organs  of  man  are  attained  through  a  roundabout  course  of  develop- 
ment, during  which  the  organs  assume  in  turn  the  form  and  relationships 
of  frogs  and  lizards.  In  some  instances,  however,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
friction  ridges,  an  organ,  or  set  of  organs  drops  out  the  earlier  stages  in 
the  development,  and  appears  at  once  in  its  final  form. 

To  summarize,  now,  the  results  of  the  study  of  friction  skin,  and  to 
assert  its  claims  to  recognition  as  an  ideal  basis  upon  which  to  found  a 
system  of  identification  which  shall  be  positive  and  absolute : 

I.  The  palmar  surfaces  of  the  hand  and  fingers,  and  the  plantar  sur- 
faces of  the  toot,  including  the  toes,  are  covered  with  a  special  sort  of  skin, 
unlike  that  found  anywhere  else  on  the  body.     Its  peculiarity  consists 
of  its  being  formed  of  minute  ridges,  having  the  mechanical  function  of 
helping  to  prevent  slipping  when  in  contact  with  smooth  external  objects. 
The  ridges  are  hence  called  friction  ridges,  and  the  skin  is  best  known  as 
friction  skin. 

II.  Over  the  greater  part  of  the  friction  skin  areas  the  ridges  run  in 
an  approximately  parallel  direction,  more  or  less  across  the  longitudinal 
axis  of  hand  and  foot,  but  in  certain  definite  places,  where  the  surface 
rises  slightly  to  come  into  fuller  contact  with  external  objects,  there  are 
found  some  decided  departuies  from  the  usual  course,  and  the  ridges  are 
arranged  in  loops,  whorls,  spirals,  or  some  similar  figure  about  a  central 
core,  which  corresponds  to  the  center  or  summit  of  the  mound  concerned. 
These  are  the  patterns,  which  may  occur  in  the  following  11  places: 

5  apical  mounds  (the  balls  of  the  digits). 

4  interdigital  mounds  (on  the  palm  or  sole,  beneath  the  intervals  between  the 

digits). 
2  proximal  mounds,  the  thenar  and  the  hypothenar.     (Thenar  on  the  side  of 

digit  I;    hypothenar  on  the  side  of  digit  V.) 

III.  The  patterns  of  the  friction  skin  are  individual,  and,  taken  to- 
gether, impossible  to  duplicate  in  another  individual.     The  separate  ridges, 
too,  show  numerous  details,  which  are  also  so  individual  that  a  small  area  of 
friction  skin,  taken  even  in  the  most  featureless  portion,  cannot  be  matched  by 
any  other  piece. 

IV.  Patterns  and  ridge  details  are  developed  in  the  embryo  in  what 
is  probably  their  final  arrangement.     It  has  also  been  shown  by  repeated 
comparisons,  taken  at  long  intervals  apart,  that  even  in  the  ridge  details 
there  is  absolutely  no  change  in  an  individual  from  birth  to  old  age. 

V.  This  friction  skin,  with  its  innumerable  individual  marks,  covers 
large  and  important  areas  of  the  body  surface  in  four  distinct  places; 
the  lower  surfaces  of  the  two  hands  and  the  two  feet.     These  surfaces,  or 


Structure  and  Development  of  Friction  Ridges  135 

at  least  some  part  of  them,  are  more  likely,  for  several  reasons,  to  be  pre- 
served in  case  of  casualty;  the  ridges  reform  after  any  injury  short  of  one 
which  destroys  the  lowest  layer,  or  bed,  of  the  epidermis;  and  thus  the 
entire  friction-skin  surfaces  can  be  destroyed  during  life  only  by  a  mutila- 
tion which  would  render  the  subject  practically  a  cripple. 

VI.  Although  any  part  of  the  friction  skin  is  so  individual  that  a 
positive  identification  could  be  made  by  its  use,  the  patterns,  because  of 
their  complexity  and  striking  differences,  offer  the  best  facilities  for  practi- 
cal use.     Simple  and  efficient  means  have  been  devised  for  classifying  and 
cataloging  these  and  other  salient  features  of  the  friction-skin  surfaces, 
and  these  methods  are  easily  learned,  and  simple  in  their  application. 

VII.  In  the  practical  application  of  friction  skin  as  a  means  of  iden- 
tification it  was  found  that  objects  cannot  be  handled  without  leaving  finger 
marks,  or  traces  of  them  that  can  be  developed,  and  that  these  traces,  if  they 
belong  to  an  individual  whose  prints  are  already  on  record,  will  lead  directly 
to  the  identification  of  the  person  who  left  them. 

VIII.  FINAL    CONCLUSION.     In    the    use    of   friction    skin    as    a 
means  of  identification,  we  have  something  that  fulfills  all  the  necessary  re- 
quirements.    It  is  (1)  individual,  and  impossible  to  duplicate  in  another 
individual,  (2)  it  is  a  permanent  bodily  mark,  never  changing  throughout 
life,  and  (3)  it  is  marked  in  four  important  and  convenient  places,  with  a 
different  record  in  each  place.     To  these  may  be  added,  (4)  that  it  is  easy 
to  devise  an  efficient  system  of  classifying  and  recording  them  and  (5)  objects 
which  a  man  has  touched  often  retain  a  legible  record  from  which  his  identity 
can  be  established. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PALM  OF  THE  HAND;   METHOD  OF  DESCRIBING  AND  CLASSIFYING 

"  On  a  dit  depuis  longtemps  quil  etait  impossible  de  trouver  deux  feuilles 
exactement  semblable:  jamais  la  nature  ne  se  repete.  Choississez  n'importe 
quelle  partie  du  corps  humaine,  examinez-la  avec  soin  che*  divers  sujets,  et 
les  dissemblances  vous  apparaitront  d'autant  plus  nombreuses  que  votre  examen 
aura  et'e  plus  minutieux."* — Alphonse  Bertillon:  Instructions  Signaletiques, 
1892.  Introduction;  p.  XV. 

PALMAR  CONFIGURATION.  The  palm  of  the  hand  is  wholly 
covered  with  typical  friction  skin,  that  is,  with  skin  which  is  covered 
with  fine  ridges,  something  like  corduroy;  and  here,  as  elsewhere, 
the  ridges  show  the  two  important  characteristics,  that  of  endless  vari- 
ation, both  of  general  pattern  and  of  detail,  and  that  of  absolute  permanence 
throughout  life. 

The  most  striking  features  of  the  general  configuration  of  the  palm 
are  the  traces  of  the  original  six  patterns,  the  thenar,  the  hypothenar,  and 
the  four  interdigitals;  traces  of  at  least  one  of  the  six  are  almost  sure  to  be 
present,  and  occasionally  there  is  a  palm  with  all  six.  (See  Figure  37, 
above;  figure  44  shows  all  but  one.)  A  given  pattern,  too,  may  show,  in 
different  hands,  every  grade  of  reduction  from  the  primitive  type,  which 
consists  of  concentric  circles  surrounding  a  core,  and  surrounded  by  its 
three  deltas,  to  the  last  vanishing  trace  of  its  last  delta,  as  represented  by 
the  convergence  of  a  few  ridges  at  the  proper  point. 

Primary  Classification:  The  Four  Main  Lines.  Although  these  pat- 
terns are  noticeable  features  on  a  palm,  and  are  of  great  use  when  running 
through  a  pile  of  prints  to  find  a  certain  one,  we  have  not  found  them  ad- 
vantageous to  use  as  the  basis  of  our  Primary  Classification,  that  is,  the 
one  first  used  in  dividing  a  set  of  palm  prints  into  its  groups.  A  possible 
use  of  the  patterns,  when  more  detail  is  needed,  as  would  happen  with  a 
very  large  print  collection,  is  that  of  a  Secondary  Classification,  and  is 
outlined  below;  but  for  the  first  division,  which  would  probably  prove 
quite  adequate  in  a  collection,  of  the  prints  of  not  more  than  ten  or 

*It  has  long  been  said  that  it  is  impossible  to  find  two  leaves  exactly  alike:  Nature 
never  repeats.  Choose  no  matter  what  part  of  the  human  body;  examine  it  and  com- 
pare it  with  care  in  different  subjects,  and  the  points  of  dissimilarity  will  seem  to  you 
the  more  numerous  the  more  minute  your  examination. 

136 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand  137 


twenty  thousand  individuals,  the  use  of  the  Main  Line  System,  with  its 
descriptive  formulae,  is  recommended. 

In  this  and  other  systems  dealing  with  so  large  an  area  as  the  entire 
palm,  it  must  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  we  are  dealing  with  much 
larger  objects  than  finger  patterns,  and  that,  consequently,  we  are  here 
to  seek  a  general  configuration,  and  not  the  details  or  the  count  of  the  indi- 
vidual ridges.  The  ridges  and  their  details  are  just  as  evident  and  just  as 
numerous  as  on  the  finger  tips,  and  they  may  be  called  upon  at  any  time  to 
corroborate  a  decision,  or  may  be  employed  where  the  area  obtainable  is  too  small 
to  allow  the  use  of  the  whole  palm;  but  in  ordinary  use  a  palmar  description, 
or  its  formula,  depends  mainly  upon  the  general  course  of  a  large  series  of 
ridges  including  patterns  but  not  the  study  of  ridge  detail.  A  photographic 
enlargement  or  even  a  magnifying  glass  are  seldom  necessary  for  an  ob- 
server having  normal  vision,  and  an  interpreted  print,  that  is,  one  in  which 
the  Main  Lines  and  other  essential  features  have  been  marked  by  black  or 
colored  lines  may  be  recognized  at  a  glance,  and  has  the  individuality  of 
a  portrait.  (Compare  the  illustrations  given  in  this  chapter.) 

The  starting  points  in  the  Main  Line  System  of  palm  formulation  are 
the  four  digital  deltas,  a,  b,  c,  and  d,  placed  on  the  palm  just  at  the  bases 
of  the  four  fingers,  index,  middle,  ring,  and  little  fingers,  respectively. 
These  are  readily  seen  in  any  print,  and  will  doubtless  be  easy  to  locate  in 
the  reader's  own  hand.  Each  delta  is  the  center  of  three  radiating  lines, 
or  radiants,  which  continue  the  corners  of  the  triangle  formed  by  the  delta 
itself.  If  these  lines  be  marked  on  a  print  by  a  pen  or  pencil,  preferably 
in  color,  it  will  be  seen  that  two  of  them  run  up  to  the  sides  of  the  finger, 
and  thus  mark  out  a  small  triangular  area  at  the  finger  base.  The  third, 
however,  is  more  extensive,  and  runs  over  the  palm,  in  some  cases  crossing 
the  entire  hand.  This  is  a  Main  Line,  and  as  one  such  proceeds  from  each 
digital  delta,  they  are  four  in  number,  and  may  be  designated  by  the 
capital  letters,  A,  B,  C,  and  D. 

When  these  lines  are  all  traced,  a  print  will  appear  like  Figure  43, 
in  which  the  course  of  each  Main  Line  has  been  followed.  In  this  palm 
Line  A,  at  the  base  of  the  index,  curves  strongly  toward  the  thumb  side, 
just  escapes  a  large  delta  belonging  to  a  pattern  (hypothenar),  and  emerges 
at  about  the  middle  of  the  wrist,  pointing  up  the  arm.  Line  B  curves  the 
other  way,  crosses  the  palm  higher  up,*  and  emerges  at  the  outer  (ulnar) 
margin,  perhaps  two-thirds  of  the  way  up  from  the  wrist  to  the  finger  base. 

*In  all  words  of  direction  it  is  assumed  that  the  reader  has  the  palm,  in  the  form 
of  a  print,  laid  before  him,  with  the  fingers  pointing  away  from  him,  toward  the  north 
in  a  map.  In  this  position  up  and  upward  mean  toward  the  fingers  (north),  or  what 
anatomists  call  distal;  while  down  and  downward  (south),  mean  toward  the  wrist,  or 
proximal.  The  terms  inner  and  outer,  occasionally  employed,  mean  respectively 
toward  the  thumb  side,  or  radial,  and  toward  the  little-finger  side,  or  ulnar. 


138 


Personal  Identification 


Line  C,  always  short  in  comparison  with  the  others,  takes  an  abrupt  turn 
upward  toward  the  fingers,  and  opens  between  the  ring  and  little  fingers. 
Finally,  Line  D  runs  in  a  direction  opposite  to  the  three  others,  curves 


Distal 


Vox  i  ma  I 


(D 


otuntuar 


ds) 


FIGURE  43.  Print  of  an  actual  palm,  with  the  Main  Lines  and  other  features 
marked,  and  used  as  a  diagram  to  explain  the  method  of  interpreting  a  palm.  Formula: 
9.7.5.1. 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand 


139 


gently  upward,  and  emerges  from  the  edge  of  the  friction  skin  between  the 
middle  and  ring  fingers. 

Quite  a  different  course  of  the  four  Main  Lines  is  seen  in  Figure  44, 
the  right  palm  print  of  another  individual.     Here  Line  A  opens  to  the 


FIGURE  44.  Print  of  an  actual  palm,  interpreted,  as  in  the  case  of  Figure  43,  but 
showing  quite  a  different  course  of  the  Main  Lines.  Thisprinthas  also  all  of  the  patterns 
to  be^found  upon  a  palm,  except  the  Radial  (Thenar).  Formula:  11 .  9.  7.  5d.  C. 


140 


Personal  Identification 


FIGURE  45.     Diagram  of  a  palm,  giving  the  numerical  values  of  the   different    pails 
of  the  margin.  This  diagram  is  the  fcey  to  Main  Line  formulae.  Formula:  11.  10.  8.5.C. 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand  141 


outer  margin;  Line  B  between  ring  and  little  finger,  Line  C  between  the 
middle  and  ring  fingers,  and  Line  D  between  the  index  and  middle  fingers. 

Thus,  from  these  two  examples,  taken  quite  at  random,  it  is  seen  that, 
(1)  there  is  much  variation  in  the  course  of  the  four  Main  Lines,  and  (2)  that 
their  course  could  be  indicated  with  considerable  accuracy  by  simply  designat- 
ing the  points  along  the  margin  where  they  terminate. 

Main  Line  Formulae.  For  this,  numbers  are  used,  and  the  whole 
plan  is  seen  on  the  accompanying  diagram,  which  furnishes  a  complete 
key  to  the  system  (Figure  45).  Beginning  with  the  middle  of  the  wrist 
there  is  here  found  either  a  typical  delta,  the  carpal  delta,  or  at  least  a 
parting  of  the  border  ridges,  indicating  its  location.  This  point  may  be 
designated  as  2.  A  hypothenar  (or  ulnar)  pattern,  when  present,  into  which 
Line  A  frequently  comes  to  an  end  (Figure  48)  is  called  4.  The  d  delta, 
at  the  base  of  the  little  finger,  is  6,  that  at  the  base  of  the  ring  finger  is  8, 
the  next  is  10,  and  the  next,  12. 

The  even  numbers  being  employed  to  designate  deltas,  and  other 
fixed  points,  the  odd  ones  may  designate  the  more  or  less  extended  margins 
between  them;  thus  1  represents  the  entire  length  of  margin  along  the 
wrist  border  of  the  thumb  before  2  is  reached;  3  and  5,  the  very  extended 
outer  margin  below  and  above  the  hypothenar  pattern  respectively.  When 
this  pattern  is  absent,  3  may  be  taken  to  represent  the  lower  one-third  of 
this  margin  and  5  the  upper  two-thirds.  The  inexactness  of  these  values 
is  compensated  for  in  the  formulation  by  reversing  the  terms,  as  explained 
below,  thus  placing  less  importance  upon  Line  A. 

Finally,  7,  9,  11,  and  13  represent  the  four  intervals  between  the  five 
digits;  13  and  1,  the  two  ends  of  the  series,  are  separated  by  the  thumb, 
which  has  no  especial  features,  and  never  serves  as  a  termination  for  a 
Main  Line,  but  if  a  delta  should  ever  be  found  at  its  base,  as  at  the  bases 
of  the  other  fingers,  it  would  be  numbered  14. 

By  the  use  of  this  key  the  course  of  the  Main  Lines  in  Figure  43 
would  be  designated  simply  by  the  four  figures  1.  5.  7.  9.  which  would 
describe  accurately  their  terminations  along  the  margin.  Now,  as  the 
starting  points  of  these  lines,  from  the  digital  deltas,  is  fixed  and  invariable, 
save  for  a  slight  shifting  in  some  cases,  and  as  lines  of  friction  ridges  never 
cross  one  another,  these  data  so  fundamentally  describe  the  main  con- 
figuration of  a  given  palm  that  no  great  variation  from  it  would  be  possible. 
To  prove  this,  let  the  reader  trace  the  outlines  of  a  hand  on  a  piece  of 
paper,  locate  on  it  the  four  digital  deltas,  a,  b,  c,  and  d,  locate  also,  from  a 
given  palm  formula,  the  four  terminations  designated,  and  then  draw  out 
the  four  main  lines,  as  thus  conditioned,  paying  some  attention  to  the  usual 
way  in  which  such  lines  curve,  and  he  will  find,  by  comparison,  that  he 
has  drawn  the  distinctive  features  of  the  palm  from  which  the  formula  was 
taken. 


142 


Personal  Identification 


It  has  just  been  pointed  out  that  the  designations  3  and  5,  which  are 
used  mainly,  though  not  exclusively,  as  terminations  for  Line  A,  are  not 
as  definite  as  are  the  others.  It  may  be  also  noted  that  Line  A  presents 
a  greater  monotony  in  its  course  than  do  the  other  lines,  and  for  this  reason, 
as  the  first  term  of  the  formula  is  of  much  importance  in  classification,  it 


FIGURE  46.     Palm  print,  with  the  formula:    7.9.5.5.C. 

seems  best  to  reverse  the  terms,  beginning  with  D  instead  of  A.     Thus  the 
formulae  for  Figures  43  and  44,  instead  of  reading: 


should  read : 


1.5.7.9 
5.7.9.11 

9.7.5.1 
11.9.7.5 


Further  examples  of  interpreted  and  formulated  palms  are  given  in 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand  143 


the  next  five  figures,  which  may  be  considered  in  detail.  When  the  Main 
Lines  and  other  features  have  been  traced  on  a  print,  as  here,  the  print 
is  said  to  be  "interpreted"  and  such  an  interpretation  must  precede  an  exact 
formulation. 

Illustrations  of  Main  Line  Formula.  Figure  46.  Line  D,  with  which 
we  should  begin,  surrounds  a  definite  pattern,  its  delta  belonging  to  the 
pattern  upon  the  outer  side,  while  there  is  another  delta  present  upon  the 
inner.  These  two  deltas  thus  frame  in  the  pattern  quite  as  is  found  in 
certain  patterns  of  the  finger  tips,  as  described  below.  The  Main  Line  D, 
also,  is  really  a  part  of  the  pattern,  but  should  be  described  by  itself,  as 
curving  around  the  core  of  the  pattern,  turning  rather  abruptly  upward, 
and  opening  between  the  ring  and  little  fingers,  that  is,  position  7.  This 
gives  the  first  term  of  the  formula. 

In  some  cases,  as  in  Figure  49,  this  extra  delta  becomes  directly  in- 
volved in  the  D  line,  and  in  such  the  formula  may  be  written  with  a  small 
d  as  an  exponent,  placed  to  the  right  of  the  number  for  Line  D,  and  a  little 
above  it.  Here  the  delta,  although  conspicuous,  is  entirely  separate  from 
Line  D.  Line  C  also  encloses  a  pattern,  but  again,  as  there  is  no  extra 
delta  involved,  its  termination,  9,  is  sufficient.  Line  B  opens  to  the  outer 
margin  of  the  palm,  but  this  is  so  high  up  that  there  can  be  no  question  of 
its  inclusion  within  the  upper  two-thirds,  and  its  designation  is  easily  5. 
With  Line  A  there  is  a  question,  as  its  course  terminates  quite  low,  yet,  by 
comparing  the  whole  distance  from  the  base  of  the  little  finger  to  the  wrist, 
it  seems  a  correct  estimate  to  designate  this  also  as  5. 

We  have,  then,  for  the  entire  formula  of  Figure  46  the  expression  7.9.5.5. 
To  this  may  be  added  the  letter  C,  which  will  indicate  that  a  typical  carpal 
delta  is  present. 

Figure  47.  This  pa'lm  is,  at  first  sight,  somewhat  hard  to  formulate, 
as  the  two  deltas,  c  and  d,  are  very  near  together,  while  the  short  connecting 
line  is  all  that  is  left  of  the  two  Main  Lines,  C  and  D,  fused  together.  As 
in  all  cases  of  the  fusion  of  two  Main  Lines,  however,  each  may  be  con- 
sidered as  ending  (if  sufficiently  prolonged),  in  the  delta  of  origin  of  the 
other  (compare  Figures  48  and  49),  and  thus  here  Line  D  ends  in  8,  and 
Line  C  in  6.  Finally,  Lines  B  and  A  both  open  to  the  outer  margin,  with  a 
value  of  5;  and  the  formula  stands,  8.6.5.5.  As  there  is  here  no  carpal 
delta,  only  a  parting,  this  may  be  indicated  by  the  letter  P,  placed  at  the 
end  of  the  formula.  A  good  hypothenar  pattern  is  present,  showing  two 
deltas,  but  it  does  not  come  into  connection  with  the  main  lines. 

Figure  48.  As  Lines  B  and  D  fuse  here,  we  get  the  respective  figures 
of  6  and  10  for  the  two.  Aside  from  this  peculiarity,  Line  C  is  entirely 
wanting,  a  condition  rather  unusual  but  by  no  means  unknown.  This 
condition  may  be  indicated  by  a  cipher,  0.  Line  A  is  also  peculiar,  be- 
coming wound  up,  or  involved,  in  the  hypothenar  pattern,  the  condition 


144 


Personal  Identification 


indicated  on  the  key  chart  by  4.  Finally,  there  is  a  carpal  delta,  placed 
high  up,  and  connected  with  the  hypothenar  pattern.  The  entire  formula 
for  this  palm  is  10. 0.6. 4. C. 

Figure  49.     Here  also^Lines  B  and  D  are  confluent,  but  the  line  passes 


FIGURE  47]     Palm  print,  with  the  formula:    8.  6.  5. 5.  P. 

through  an  extra  delta  belonging  evidently  to  the  pattern  near  the  d  delta. 
Line  C  is  present,  curving  up  to  the  position  9;  Line  A  emerges  at  5,  and 
there  is  a  carpal  delta,  placed  rather  high.  The  formula  runs:  10d.9.6d. 
5.C.,  the  exponent  letter  d  referring  to  the  extra  delta.  Placing  it  in 
connection  with  Line  B  as  well  as  D  signifies  that  this  line  also  might  be 
considered  to  end  in  it,  if  it  were  not  prolonged  through  it.  The  rather 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand 


145 


unusual  thenar  pattern  at  the  base  of  the  thumb  is  indicated,  but  not  well 
developed. 

Figure  50.  Line  C  is  here  small,  and  makes  an  insignificant  loop 
toward  the  inner,  or  thumb,  side  of  the  palm.  Both  thenar  and  hypothenar 
patterns  are  present,  also  a  carpal  triradius.  Formula :  1 1 . 9 . 7 . 5 .  C. 

Aside  from  these  actual  prints,  we  present  here  a  series  of  drawings 


FIGURE  48.     Palm  print,  with  the  formula:     10.  0.6.4.  Ch. 

taken  from  prints,  and  giving  the  lines  which  are  essential  for  the  delinea- 
tion of  the  conditions.  These  are  all  taken  from  left  hands,  and  the  posi- 
tion of  the  fingers,  which  are  not  given,  can  be  readily  learned  from  the 
position  of  the  four  digital  deltas.  These  may  be  considered  in  turn. 

Figure  51.  This  figure  shows  the  simplest  formula  possible,  where 
Lines  A,  B,  and  C  all  run  across  the  palm,  approximately  parallel  to  one 
another,  and  open  out  upon  the  outer  margin  in  the  position  5.  In  this 
case,  which  is  by  no  means  rare,  Line  D  curves  about  in  the  only  space 


146 


Personal  Identification 


left  for  it,  and  runs  into  the  space  between  the  little  and  ring  fingers.     For- 
mula:    7. 5. 5. 5. P. 

This  formula,  with  its  variants,  7.5.5.3,  7.5.5.2,  7.5.5.1,  and 
8.6.5.5,  is  of  such  great  frequency  in  the  negro  race  that  one  is  almost 
tempted  to  call  it  the  "Negro  formula."  It  does  occur,  however,  among 


FIGURE  49.     Palm  print,  with  the  formula:     10d.9.6.5.C. 

whites  without  a  suspicion  of  negro  blood,  as  here,  but  in  nowhere  near  so 
large  a  proportion.  In  nearly  200  negro  hands  studied  with  this  in  mind, 
this  group  of  related  formulae  appears  in  52  per  cent,  while  in  white  hands 
it  occurs  in  something  like  10  per  cent. 

Figure  52.  This  hand,  with  the  formula,  8.6.5.3.P,  differs  only  a 
little  from  the  previous  one,  since,  by  the  change  of  a  single  ridge,  Lines 
C  and  D,  which  here  meet,  might  by  a  slight  change  pass  one  another, 
Line  C  passing  below  and  reaching  the  outer  margin.  Line  A,  also,  differs 
imposition  in  the  two. 

Figure  53.  In  this  hand,  while  A  and  B  are  simple  to  understand, 
each  opening  to  the  outer  margin,  with  a  value  of  5,  the  relations  of  C  and 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand 


147 


D  are  very  unusual,  and  might  admit  of  more  than  one  interpretation. 
As  Line  C  occasionally  disappears,  with  its  delta,  and  there  is  but  one  delta 
here  for  the  two  lines,  it  seems  easiest  to  assume  that  the  missing  delta  is 
c,  and  that,  consequently,  Line  C  is  also  wanting.  Granting  this,  the  one 
remaining  delta  is  delta  d,  and  Line  D  swings  around  the  entire  C  region, 


.., 


FIGURE  50.     Palm  print  with  the  formula:     11.9.7.5.C. 


where  nothing  is  happening,  and  terminates  between  the  ring  and  middle 
fingers  with  a  value  of  9.  The  complete  formula,  with  this  interpretation, 
runs  9 . 0 . 5 . 5 .  C. 

Figure  54.  The  unusual  thing  about  this  palm,  which  strikes  the  eye 
at  once,  is  the  termination  of  Line  A  in  the  carpal  delta  (giving  the  value  of 
2  to  this  line).  The  formula  is  9 . 7 . 5 . 2 .  C. 


148 


Personal  Identification 


FIGURE  51 


FIGURE  53 


FIGURE  52 


FIGURE  54 


FIGURE  55  FIGURE  56 

FIGURES  51   to  56.     Tracings  taken  from  actual  palm  prints,   showing 
various  arrangements  of  the  Main  Lines.     The  formulae  are  as  follows:  — 
FIGURE  51.     7.5.5.5.P  FIGURE  54.     9.7.5.2.C. 

FIGURE  52      8. 6. 5. 3. P.  FIGURE  55.     11.7.7.1.C. 

FIGURE  53.     9. 0.5. 5. C.  FIGURE  56.     11.8.7.3.Ch. 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand  149 


Figure  55.  Here  the  course  of  Line  A  turns  toward  the  thumb  still 
more  than  in  the  previous  figure,  and  actually  terminates  between  the 
carpal  delta  and  the  thumb;  position  1.  This  is  perhaps  also  its  posi- 
tion in  Figure  52,  although  in  this  case  there  is  no  carpal  delta,  and  the 
exact  position  of  point  2  is  a  little  uncertain.  This  is  an  unusual  course 
for  Line  A,  and  may  be  expected  about  twice  in  100  hands.  Formula: 
11. 7. 7. l.C. 

Figure  56.  This  was  selected  to  show  an  unusual  type  of  Line  C, 
but  shows  also  a  pattern  between  Lines  C  and  D,  and  has  the  carpal  delta 
located  very  high  up.  As  this  latter  is  a  distinct  feature,  it  may  be  indi- 
cated, if  one  wishes,  by  an  exponent  letter  h  (high),  placed  in  association 
with  the  term  C,  at  the  end  of  the  formula,  denoting  the  position  of  the 
delta  in  question.  Line  C,  the  chief  peculiarity  of  this  palm,  forms  a  minute 
loop,  which  returns  to  the  digital  line,  not  far  from  its  starting  point,  en- 
closing a  single  small  circular  ridge.  As  this  line  may  be  said  to  come  back 
to  itself  (position  8),  the  value  of  8  may  be  given  to  it.  This  is  a  very 
eccentric  course  for  the  line,  but  a  similar  case  is  frequently  met  with,  where 
Line  C  runs  straight  into  a  loop,  which  terminates  its  course  very  shortly, 
and  gives  it  no  opportunity  to  continue  to  a  margin.  To  this  also,  when 
it  occurs,  the  value  of  8  may  be  given.  Formula :  11.8.7.3.  Ch. 

Thus  Line  C  shows  three  possibilities  where  the  line  does  not  reach 
any  margin: 

1.  Runs  straight  down  into  a  loop,  and  stops,  =8 

2.  Forms  a  little  loop  or  circle  upon  its  digital  line,  =  8 

3.  Wholly  absent,  together  with  its  delta,  =0* 

Arrangement  of  Main  Line  Formulae.  In  arranging  a  series  of  palm 
formulae  there  is  a  very  evident  order  in  which  they  should  be  placed, 
namely,  that  of  the  numbers  in  their  usual  order,  classifying  them  first  by 
the  first  term,  then,  under  each  of  these,  by  the  second,  and  so  on.  Thus, 
in  Figures  43  to  56,  including  the  diagram,  Figure  45,  some  14  formulae 
have  been  illustrated,  with  but  one  duplicate,  that  represented  in  Figures 
44  and  50,  and  these  two  differ  strikingly  in  their  patterns.  These  14 
may  be  taken  as  an  example  of  the  proper  arrangement  in  a  file,  and 
will  be  arranged  as  in  the  following  list;  the  final  term,  C  or  P,  would 
naturally  follow  the  alphabet,  and  C  would  come  first. 

*As  the  digit  O,  standing  alone,  is  a  little  awkward  in  a  formula,  and  is  liable  to 
be  confused  with  a  6  or  an  8,  the  symbol  X  has  been  recommended  for  this  condition 
(E.  Loth,  1910).  In  the  usage  of  this  author  X  stands  for  either  of  these  three  alter- 
natives; but  a  distinction  might  be  made  by  using  the  8  as  suggested  here,  where  a 
trace  of  the  line  is  present,  and  the  O  to  denote  its  complete  absence.  The  formula  for 
Figure  48  would  then  read,  10.  x.  G.  4  .  C,  and  that  for  Figure  53,  9.  x.  5.  5.  C. 


150 


Personal  Identification 


7.5.5.5.P 

Figure  51 

7.9.5.5.C 

Figure  46 

8.6.5.3.P 

Figure  52 

8.6.5.5.P 

Figure  47 

9.  0.5.  5.  C 

Figure  53 

9.7.5.1.P 

Figure  43 

9.7.5.2.C 

Figure  54 

10.  0.6.  4.  C 

Figure  48 

10.  9.  6.  5.  C 

Figure  49 

11.7.7.1.C 

Figure  55 

11.  8.  7.  3.  C 

Figure  56 

11.  9.  7.  5.  C 

Figure  44 

11.  9.  7.  5.  C 

Figure  50 

11.  10.  8.  5.  C 

Figure  45  (Key  diagram) 

It  is  essential,  for  the  practical  purpose  of  seeing  how  such  a  method 
of  describing  palms  would  work,  next  to  inquire  into  the  number  of  differ- 
ent formulae  occurring,  and  the  approximate  frequency  of  each,  and,  al- 
though this  can  be  definitely  known  only  after  the  interpretation  and 
classification  ot  many  thousands,  some  little  idea  may  be  obtained  by  the 
following  table,  which  gives  the  formulae  represented  in  the  hands  of  100 
female  students,  taken  at  random,  and  computed  for  the  right  and  left 
hands  separately. 


Formulae                        left;          right 

Formulae              left;     right 

Formulae              left;    right 

7.5.3.2. 

1 

0 

9.8.5.5. 

2 

2 

11.7.7.1. 

1 

0 

7.5.5.2. 

2 

0 

9.8.7.5. 

1 

1 

11.7.7.2. 

1 

0 

7.5.5.3. 

6 

1 

9.9.5.3. 

1 

0 

11.7.7.3. 

1 

1 

7.5.5.4. 

1 

2 

9.9.5.5. 

2 

3 

11.7.7.4. 

1 

0 

7.5.5.5. 

2 

2 

9.10.8.5. 

0 

1 

11.7.7.5. 

8 

4 

7.9.5.3. 

1 

0 

10.7.6.2. 

5 

0 

11.8.7.2. 

1 

2 

7.9.5.5. 

2 

1 

10.7.6.4. 

1 

0 

11.8.7.3. 

1 

0 

8.6.5.2. 

2 

0 

10.7.6.5. 

3 

4 

11.8.7.4. 

0 

2 

8.6.5.3. 

9 

4 

10.8.6.3. 

0 

1 

11.8.7.5. 

4 

3 

8.6.5.5. 

2 

6 

10.8.6.5. 

1 

2 

11.8.9.5. 

0 

1 

8.7.6.5. 

0 

1 

10.9.6.2. 

1 

0 

11.9.7.3. 

2 

1 

9.7.5.1. 

1 

0 

10.9.6.3. 

1 

0' 

11.9.7.4. 

3 

1 

9.7.5.2. 

3 

1 

10.9.6.4. 

1 

1 

11.9.7.5. 

5 

23 

9.7.5.3. 

3 

2 

10.9.6.5. 

2 

2 

11.10.8.4. 

1 

0 

9.7.5.4. 

1 

4 

10.10.6.5. 

0 

1 

11.10.8.5. 

1 

5 

•  9.7.5.5. 

6 

12 

10.10.8.5. 

0 

1 

11.11.8.5. 

0 

1 

9.8.5.3. 

4 

1 

11.7.5.3. 

1 

0 

9.8.5.4. 

1 

0 

11.7.5.5. 

1 

0 

The  total  number  of  formulae  that  were  actually  found  to  occur  in 
this  chance  collection  of  100  individuals  (200  hands)  is  52,  of  which  44  occur 
in  left  hands,  and  34  in  rights.  Eighteen  of  the  former  appear  in  the  left 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand  151 


hands  alone,  and  not  in  the  rights;  8  appear  in  rights  only;  while  26  are 
common  to  both.  The  commonest  formula  for  the  left  hands  is  8.6.5.3, 
which  is  found  in  9  per  cent  of  the  100  cases;  for  the  right  hands  the  com- 
monest formula,  and  a  very  common  one  too,  is  11.9.7.5,  which  is  met 
with  in  no  less  than  23  times  out  of  the  100  right  hands,  that  is,  23  per  cent. 

From  these  comparisons  we  see  that  the  left  hand  is  more  variable  than 
the  right,  and  hence  should  be  used  first  in  classifying  prints,  as  it  is  a  dis- 
tinct advantage  to  have  the  first  groups  into  which  a  set  is  divided  as 
numerous  as  possible,  and  as  equal  as  possible,  results  which  right  hands, 
with  their  smaller  number  of  groups,  and  the  single  group  with  the  formula 
11.9.7.5,  and  including  nearly  one-fourth  of  all  cases,  would  not  effect. 
Undoubtedly  a  larger  number  than  the  100  here  used  would  yield  many 
more  separate  formulae,  perhaps  twice  as  many,  and  this  would  probably 
reduce  the  large  proportions  of  the  two  largest  groups. 

Applying  the  results  of  this  study,  as  thus  far  known,  to  the  classifi- 
cation of  a  very  large  set  of  prints,  100,000  for  example,  and  employing 
the  numbers  and  proportions  learned  from  the  above  table,  the  first  sub- 
division, by  the  main  line  formulae  of  the  left  hands,  and  allowing  only  the 
44  different  formulas  found  in  the  100  individuals,  would  subdivide  the  lot 
into  as  many  different  piles,  containing,  some  1,000,  some  2,000,  and  a 
few  a  considerably  larger  number.  The  compartment  reserved  for  the 
formula  8.6.5.3  would  contain  9,000,  the  largest  subdivision. 

Suppose,  now,  still  employing  only  the  Main  Line  formulae,  each  of 
these  compartments  were  further  subdivided  by  the  right  hands,  and  that 
these  varied  independently  of  the  lefts,  which  they  do,  very  nearly;  each 
of  the  44  compartments  would  be  separated  into  some  34  smaller  subdivi- 
sions, with  about  230  showing  the  commonest  formula  in  a  compartment 
numbering  1,000.  In  the  largest  compartment,  the  one  containing  9,000, 
there  might  be  some  2,000  with  this  common  right  hand  formula,  and  this 
would  probably  be  by  far  the  largest  group  in  the  whole  collection. 

But  thus  far  only  the  four  Main  Lines  have  been  employed,  dealing 
with  large  and  obvious  features,  which  in  an  interpreted  palm  print,  could 
be  seen  with  the  unaided  eye  across  a  room.  We  have,  in  fact,  no  more  than 
begun  with  the  endless  number  of  individual  differences  in  the  human 
palm,  any  or  all  of  which  are  available  if  desired. 

Secondary  Classification;  the  Patterns.  In  order  still  further  to  sub- 
divide as  large  a  collection  as  the  one  here  imagined,  recourse  may  next  be 
had  to  the  patterns,  the  presence  of  which  is  so  marked  a  feature  of  a  print. 
The  presence  or  absence  of  the  carpal  delta  also,  or  of  others  that  some- 
times appear  in  connection  with  the  pattern,  might  be  serviceable  points 
for  a  further  subdivision.  These  could  be  reserved  for  a  collection  of, 
say,  a  million  individuals,  where  there  would  no  doubt  be  several  individ- 
uals with  the  same  Main  Line  formulae  and  with  the  same  patterns; 


152 


Personal  Identification 


but  the  presence  or  absence  of  the  patterns  alone  would  sufficiently  divide 
the  groups  in  any  collection  yet  contemplated,  and  would  be  amply  suffi- 
cient for  present  needs.  It  must  be  remembered,  too,  (1)  that  all  these 


FIGURE  57.  Diagram  giving  the  location  of  the 
patterns,  as  used  in  determining  the  Pattern  for- 
mula. 

Ul,  ulnar  pattern;  Rad,  radial  pattern;  r,  acces- 
sory part  of  the  radial  pattern,  morphologically  the 
first  interdigital;  1,  2,  3,  the  three  Palmar  patterns; 
a,  b,  c,  d,  the  four  digital  deltas,  the  starting  points 
of  the  four  Main  Lines. 

coarser  features  are  to  be  employed  only  for  the  purpose  of  classification, 
so  that  a  given  print  may  be  easily  found  among  a  large  collection;  and 
(2)  that  the  final  question  of  identity,  as  in  all  identification  by  friction  skin, 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand  153 


comes  from  the  examination  of  the  ridge  detail  upon  some  selected  portion  of 
the  surface,  by  which  the  positive  identification  or  the  reverse  could  be  defi- 
nitely and  finally  determined  in  a  few  minutes. 

As  above  stated  in  several  places,  there  are  originally,  or  typically, 
six  possible  patterns  on  the  palm  of  the  human  hand,  one  upon  the  inner 
cushion  at  the  base  of  the  thumb,  the  Thenar;  one  upon  the  outer  cushion, 
on  the  little  finger  side,  the  Hypothenar;  and  four  placed  beneath  the 
interspaces  between  the  five  digits,  the  four  Interdigitals.  Of  these  last 
the  first,  beneath  the  wide  interval  between  the  thumb  and  the  index, 
is  found  only  in  connection  with  a  thenar  pattern,  the  two  making  a  pair 
of  loops,  one  opening  up,  the  other  down  (Figures  24,  25).  As  it  never 
occurs  alone,  and  is  so  insignificant,  and  so  closely  connected  with  the 
thenar,  it  is  best  for  practical  reasons  to  ignore  it  altogether,  and  speak 
of  this  and  the  thenar,  which  always  occur  together,  as  one  pattern.  It 
is  also  more  practical,  in  a  working  system,  to  find  simpler  and  shorter 
words  for  the  different  patterns  than  the  scientific  terms  used  hitherto; 
and  as  an  attempt  to  do  this  the  thenar,  on  the  side  of  the  thumb,  or  the 
radius  (the  inner  bone  of  the  forearm)  may  be  called  the  RADIAL;  the 
hypothenar,  on  the  side  of  the  little  finger,  or  the  ulnar  (the  outer  bone  of 
the  forearm)  may  be  called  the  ULNAR,  and  the  three  inter  digitals,  which 
remain  after  disposing  of  the  first,  the  three  PALMAR. 

Thus  simplified,  the  five  patterns  of  the  human  palm,  with  their  names 
and  positions,  are  indicated  on  the  accompanying  chart.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  the  three  palmar  patterns  lie  between  the  four  digital  deltas,  a,  b,  c, 
and  d,  the  first  between  a  and  b,  and  so  on.  This  renders  very  simple  the 
determination  of  each  on  a  palm  print,  especially  an  interpreted  one, 
covered  by  the  Main  Lines,  since  none  of  the  latter  ever  crosses  a  pattern, 
or  even  the  area  where  a  pattern  belongs,  but  clearly  defines  and  separates  the 
three  palmar  areas,  whether  a  pattern  is  on  it  or  not. 

In  expectancy  of  occurrence  the  Ulnar  (hypothenar)  pattern  is  found 
in  not  far  from  20  per  cent  of  the  hands  of  white  people,  and  the  much 
rarer  Radial  (thenar)  in  not  more  than  four  or  five  per  cent.  Of  the  three 
Palmar  patterns  the  Second  is  probably  the  commonest,  the  Third  the 
next  common,  and  the  First  the  rarest.  In  the  palm  prints  illustrating 
this  chapter  these  five  patterns  may  be  found  as  follows: 

Ulnar  Pattern    Figures  43,  44,  47,  48,  55. 

Radial  Pattern Figures  49,  50. 

First  Palmar    Figure  44. 

Second  Palmar Figures  44,  46,  49,  50,  56. 

Third  Palmar Figures  43,  44,  46,  49,  51,  52,  54,  55,  56. 

In  some  cases  the  determination  of  a  given  Palmar  pattern  is  at  first 
sight  hard,  since  in  proportion  to  the  entire  breadth  of  the  palm  they  may 


154 


Personal  Identification 


appear  displaced.  The  exact  determination,  however,  is  always  given 
beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  by  the  four  Main  Lines,  which  frame  in  the 
pattern  areas.  Thus,  in  Figure  55  the  Palmar  pattern  present  appears 
about  in  the  middle  of  the  palm,  that  is,  midway  between  outer  and  inner 
edges,  and  in  an  uninterpreted  print  might  easily  be  called  the  Second. 
The  establishment  of  the  Main  Lines,  however,  show  conclusively  that 
the  pattern  is  really  the  Third,  as  it  is  included  between  Lines  C  and  D. 
What  has  really  happened  here,  as  shown  by  the  Main  Lines,  is  that  the 
Third  Palmar  area  (with  its  pattern)  has  encroached  considerably  upon 
the  Second,  which  is  small  and  narrow,  thus  allowing  its  pattern  also  to 
encroach  toward  the  radial  or  thumb  side. 

Having  once  learned  the  positions  of  the  five  patterns,  the  Pattern 
formula  of  a  given  print,  in  the  form  of  a  single  number,  may  be  easily 
obtained  from  the  accompanying  table. 


SYNOPTICAL  TABLE   TO    DETERMINE   THE    PATTERN  FORMULA  OF  A 

GIVEN  PALM. 


ULNAR  PATTERN.       RADIAL  PATTERN.                     THREE  PALMAR  PATTERNS. 

2  present 

1  present  1 
1  absent  2 

RADIAL  present  ' 

3  present     • 

2  absent 

i 

2  present 

1  present  3 
1  absent  4 

1  present  5 
1  absent  6 

3  absent 

2  absent 

1  present  7 
1  absent  8 

ULNAR  present    • 

2  present 

1  present  9 
1  absent  10 

3  present     • 

2  absent 

1  present  11 
1  absent  12 

RADIAL   absent  ' 

2  present 

1  present  13 
1  absent  14 

3  absent 

2  absent 

1  present  15 
1  absent  16 

The  Palm  of  the  Hand 


155 


i 

2  present 

1  present    17 

1  absent      18 

3  present 

' 

2  absent 

1  present     19 

1  absent      20 

RADIAL  present   • 

2  present 

1   present    21 

1  absent      22 

3  absent        j 

2  absent 

1  present    23 

. 

1  absent      24 

ULNAR  absent 

' 

2  present 

1  present    25 

1  absent      26 

3  present 

2  absent 

1   present    27 

1  absent      28 

RADIAL   absent 

2  present 

1  present    29 

1  absent      30 

3  absent    •     < 

2  absent 

1   present    31 

1  absent      32 

The  first  pattern  to  use  is  the  ULNAR,  which,  if  present,  directs  the 
investigator  to  the  upper  half  of  the  table,  and  consequently  limits  the 
designation  to  the  first  16  numbers.  This  is  followed  by  a  scrutiny  of 
the  radial  surface  for  the  RADIAL  pattern.  The  presence  or  absence  of 
this  rare  pattern  will  definitely  assign  the  palm  in  question  to  its  proper 
subdivision;  that  is,  to  either  the  compartment  at  the  head  of  the  table, 
"Radial  present,"  or  the  second  subdivision,  "Radial  absent."  The 
next  choice  will  be  found  in  the  third  vertical  column,  and  is  based  upon 
the  presence  or  absence  of  the  third  PALMAR  pattern,  and  in  the  same  way, 
the  fourth  and  the  fifth  columns,  with  their  choices,  based  upon  the  two 
remaining  PALMAR  patterns,  will  lead  eventually  to  a  single  number,  some- 
where between  1  and  32-  This  is  the  Pattern  formula. 

To  illustrate  by  a  definite  case,  we  may  find  by  the  table  the  pattern 
formula  for  Figure  50  above.  The  presence  of  the  ULNAR  pattern,  always 
the  first  point  to  be  ascertained,  limits  the  work  to  the  upper  half  of  the 
table,  and  fixes  the  formula  between  1  and  16.  The  second  question, 
that  asked  in  the  second  vertical  column,  is  also  affirmatively  answered 
in  this  case,  and  further  limits  the  choice  to  the  first  8  digits,  included  by 
the  term  "Radial  present."  The  third  question  concerns  the  third  PALMAR 
pattern,  which  is  here  gone  without  a  trace  (between  digital  deltas  c  and 


156  Personal  Identification 


d),  and  limits  the  choice  again  to  the  four  numbers  5  to  8.  The  second 
PALMAR,  (the  next  question,)  is  present,  and  gives  us  only  the  choice  of  5 
or  6,  and  the  last  question,  that  concerning  the  first  PALMAR,  is  answered 
by  the  expression  "  1  absent."  This  fixes  the  final  choice  at  6,  the  Pattern 
Formula  for  this  particular  palm. 

Figure  49  starts  with  the  lower  half  of  the  table,  since  it  lacks  the 
ULNAR  pattern,  after  which  it  selects  in  turn  the  subdivisions  "Radial 
present"  "3  present,"  "2  present"  and  "1  absent"  and  thus  reaches  the 
number  18,  its  pattern  formula.  In  writing  out  the  entire  description 
of  a  palm,  it  is  best  to  use  the  Main  Line  formula,  including  the  term  for 
a  Carpal  delta  or  a  parting,  as  a  numerator,  above  the  line,  and  the  Pattern 
formula  below;  thus, 

11.9.7.5.  C                               10.9.6.5.  C                               9.7.5.5.  C 
Figure  oO  =  ^ Figure  49  =   — Figure  46   =  ^ 

0  io  —  <> 

After  working  out  the  Pattern  formulae  of  a  large  number  of  palms 
the  actual  meanings  of  each  of  the  32  numbers  will  become  so  well  known 
that  a  picture  of  the  palm,  with  its  patterns  as  they  appear,  will  be  readily 
imagined;  yet,  to  begin  with,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  all  the  odd  numbers 
designate,  among  other  things,  the  presence  of  a  first  PALMAR  pattern; 
that  the  first  half  of  the  numbers,  namely,  1-16,  signify  the  presence  of 
an  ULNAR,  while  the  second  half,  numbers  17-32,  denote  its  absence; 
also  that  the  first  and  third  quarters  of  the  numbers,  that  is,  1-8  and  17—24, 
possess  a  RADIAL  pattern,  while  the  others  do  not.  It  will  thus  appear 
that  in  a  set  of  actual  prints  the  32  subdivisions  are  by  no  means  equally 
frequent,  that  the  numbers  17-32  will  be  much  commoner  than  are  the 
lower  numbers  (1-16);  that  of  this  latter  half  the  numbers  25-32  will 
be  much  more  frequent  than  the  numbers  17-24,  and  so  on.  When  it 
is  remembered,  however,  that  the  whole  Pattern  formula  is  only  a  Secondary 
one,  to  be  employed  after  the  Primary  classification  by  the  Main  Lines 
to  subdivide  further  the  larger  groups,  it  will  probably  be  found  to  be 
sufficient.  It  must  be  also  noticed  that  these  32  subdivisions  are  those 
of  one  hand  only,  and  if  these  be  further  subdivided  by  the  Pattern  for- 
mulae of  the  other  hand,  it  will  make  theoretically  32  x  32  possible  com- 
partments, or  1,024,  into  which  to  separate  a  set  of  palms  having  the  same 
Main  Line  formula  on  each  hand. 

Thus  far  the  palm  system  has  never  yet  been  applied  to  a  very  large 
number  of  individuals  (about  800),  and  it  cannot  be  predicted  exactly 
where  in  the  classification  of  a  large  collection  the  chief  difficulties  will 
come;  the  system,  however,  is  elastic  enough,  and  has  a  sufficient  number 
of  possible  adaptations,  to  allow  any  inconvenience  to  be  readily  overcome. 

If  the  prints  of  an  individual  are  simply  numbered  consecutively  as 
received  in  a  given  office,  and  placed  on  file  in  the  same  order,  the  Main- 


The  Palm  of  the  Hand  157 


Line-Pattern  formulae  may  be  controlled  by  a  card  catalog  of  small-sized 
cards,  which  are  themselves  arranged  according  to  formulae.  It  would 
be  even  a  comparatively  simple  matter  to  arrange  two  or  more  separate 
card  catalogs,  one  classifying  the  prints  in  the  collection  by  the  left  hands 
alone;  the  other  by  the  right  hands  alone,  to  allow  for  the  possible  con- 
tingency of  finding  a  single  hand  of  a  mutilated  body,  or  to  provide  for 
the  contingency  of  an  individual  losing  a  hand.  Again  it  may  be  suggested 
that  all  schemes  of  classification  are  merely  for  the  purpose  of  finding 
readily  all  the  prints  in  a  collection  that  resemble  in  general  a  certain  one 
sought,  and  that  the  real  identification  comes,  not  from  identical  Main 
Line  and  Pattern  formulse,  but  in  comparing  the  details  of  prints  with  the 
same  formulae  to  see  if  these  too  correspond.  In  this  last  trial  every  ridge, 
including  its  details,  must  correspond  as  closely  as  is  demanded  of  a  single 
finger  print,  and  with  so  large  an  area  as  that  furnished  by  even  one  palm 
the  chances  of  such  a  correspondence  between  two  individuals  would  be 
about  the  same  as  the  chance  of  a  stretch  of  wind-blown  sand  twice  as- 
sembling each  of  its  countless  sand  grains  in  exactly  the  same  position 
relative  to  one  another. 

Although  as  yet  the  employment  of  the  prints  of  human  palms  and 
soles  has  not  been  officially  incorporated  with  the  System  of  Finger  prints, 
all  plainly  belong  together,  and  in  numerous  cases  the  former  could  be 
used  more  advantageously  than  the  latter.  With  the  end  of  furthering 
this  larger  use  of  friction  skin  in  identification,  some  calculation  will  be 
found,  at  the  end  of  the  next  chapter,  of  the  office  furniture  necessary  for 
the  installation  of  such  a  system  on  a  large  scale,  especially  the  amount 
of  space  needed  for  an  adequately  equipped  and  classified  collection  of 
prints. 

Interpreting  a  Print;  Rules  for  this.  Finally,  although  the  "inter- 
pretation" of  a  given  point,  that  is,  the  tracing  of  the  Main  Lines  and 
other  features  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter,  and  requires  only  a  moderate 
amount  of  either  training  or  eyesight,  certain  simple  rules  may  be  here 
laid  down  to  make  the  task  easier  for  the  beginner. 

1.  In  general,  a  line  is  determined  by  following  a  single  ridge  which 
radiates  out  from  a  delta;    but  in  places  where  the  ridges  are  short  and 
broken,  it  is  sufficient  to  follow  the  general  course.     A  line  must  never 
cross  a  ridge. 

2.  Whenever,  through  forks  or  breaks,  there  is  doubt  concerning 
the  right  ridge  to  follow,  take  the  highest  one,  that  is,  the  one  highest  up 
on  the  print  when  held  with  the  fingers  pointing  up  (north  on  the  map). 
This  rule  is  especially  applicable  to  Line  A,  and  to  the  others  when  they 
terminate  in  the  outer  margin,  since  here  the  ridges  frequently  multiply 
by  forking,  in  order  to  accommodate  themselves  to  the  large  Ulnar  (hypo- 
thenar)  area,  which  is  supplied  from  a  comparatively  small  number  of 


158  Personal  Identification 


ridges  that  cross  the  palm  obliquely  from  above.  In  this  case  always  make 
the  Main  Lines  in  question  terminate  as  high  up  as  the  ridges  will  allow. 
If  the  ridge  that  is  being  followed  curves  downward  without  breaking,  it 
must  be  followed  downward,  as  a  complete  break  of  continuity,  so  that  the 
ridge  comes  to  an  end,  is  the  only  excuse  for  jumping  up  to  the  ridge  above. 
Where  a  line  terminates  on  the  margin,  however,  the  case  is  not  very  criti- 
cal, as  the  margin  indicated  by  both  3  and  5  is  a  long  one;  then,  too,  Line 
A  is  the  fourth  of  the  series,  and  the  classification  of  the  print  is  fairly  well 
determined  before  the  value  of  Line  A  is  employed. 

3.  In  cases  where  appearances  indicate  that  two  of  the  Main  Lines 
will  meet  and  fuse,  start  a  line  from  each  delta  and  follow  each  without 
prejudice.     In  doubtful  cases,  where  the  lines  may  be  made  either  to  meet 
or  to  pass  by  a  ridge  or  two,  favor  the  former  decision,  and  cause  them  to 
meet. 

4.  Where,  in  the  above  case,  the  two  lines  cannot  be  made  to  quite 
meet,  but  where  there  is  still  some  doubt  whether  another  investigator 
might  interpret  the  matter  otherwise,  indicate  by  an  exponent  upon  each 
of  the  terms  involved  the  other  possible  reading  thus:     1110.9.78.5.    This 
plan  should  be  followed  in  all  cases  where  another  interpretation  is  pos- 
sible, ignoring  the  exponents  in  classifying. 

5.  Where  the  deltas  are  not  to  be  traced  to  a  definite  point  and  are 
rather  indeterminate,  the  general  convergence  of  ridges  may  be  a  sufficient 
guide  to  the  starting  point  for  the  radiating  lines. 

6.  Additional  deltas,  called  "lower  deltas,"  are  frequently  met  with 
in  association  with  the  others,  especially  Lines  A  and  D,  and  quite  often, 
where  one  of  these  is  present,  the  associated  Main  Line  will  run  directly 
into  it  and  stop,  being  continued  only  by  one  of  the  radiants  of  this  new 
delta.     In  this  case  continue  as  the  rest  of  the  Main  Line  the  radiant  which 
in  its  direction  forms  the  most  natural  continuation  of  the  Main  Line, 
and  indicate  the  presence  of  the  delta  along  its  course  by  an  exponent 
letter  d,  as  shown  in  the  formula  for  Figure  49(10d.9.6.5.C.). 

7.  The  above  rule  does  not  hold  for  Main  Lines  which  run  into  either 
the  carpal  delta  or  that  belonging  to  the  ULNAR  pattern,  since  these  bear 
respectively  the  numbers  2  and  4,  and  form  regular  points  in  the  system, 
as  shown  in  the  key  diagram,  Figure  45. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   SOLE   OF   THE    FOOT;      METHOD   OF   DESCRIBING   AND    CLASSIFYING 

"It  happened  one  day,  about  noon,  going  toward  my  boat,  I  was  ex- 
ceedingly surprised  with  the  print  of  a  man's  naked  foot  on  the  shore,  which 
was  very  plain  to  be  seen  in  the  sand.  ...  7  went  to  it  again  to  see  if 
there  were  any  more,  and  to  observe  if  it  might  not  be  my  fancy:  But  there 
was  no  room  for  that,  for  there  was  exactly  the  very  print  of  a  foot  —  toes, 
heel,  and  every  part  of  a  foot."  —  Daniel  DeFoe  (1659-1731):  Robinson 
Crusoe. 

IN  the  complete  exploitation  of  a  system  of  identification  based  upon 
the  friction-ridge  configuration  the  soles  of  the  feet  should  not  be 

neglected;  for  not  only  is  the  general  configuration  often  more  elab- 
orate and  certain  patterns  more  constant  than  in  the  palm,  but  there 
are  numerous  cases  in  which  there  is  a  distinct  advantage  in  the  use  of  the 
sole  rather  than  any  other  parts. 

Thus,  identification  by  sole  prints  is  by  far  the  most  practical  method 
for  use  in  identifying  the  babies  in  maternity  hospitals,  since  the  printing 
of  either  fingers  or  palms  is  practically  out  of  the  question  because  of  the 
intense  and  constant  activity  of  these  latter  parts.  The  movements  of 
the  parts  of  the  foot  are  limited,  and  the  toes  are  too  short  to  interfere 
so  that  a  set  of  fairly  good  sole  prints  may  be  made  with  comparative 
ease  in  even  a  new-born  baby.  Here,  as  in  all  cases  where  the  ridges  are 
fine  and  soft,  very  little  ink  should  be  used,  spread  over  a  small  glass  plate, 
and  the  foot,  held  firmly  in  the  hand  in  a  natural  position,  should  be  ap- 
plied quickly  and  lightly,  first  to  the  glass  plate,  then  to  a  pad  of  glazed 
(or  ordinary)  paper.  Good  prints  may  also  be  obtained  by  rolling  an  inked 
rubber  roller  over  the  sole,  and  then  applying  the  paper,  but  in  the  long 
run  it  will  probably  prove  to  be  less  practical  than  the  other  method.* 

A  second  important  application  of  sole  prints  comes  in  the  case  of 
badly  mutilated  bodies,  such  as  result  at  times  from  railroad  and  steam- 
boat accidents,  theatre  horrors,  mill  disasters,  and  so  on,  where  there  has 
been  a  burning  of  the  surface,  or  perhaps  a  complete  dismemberment, 
with  recovery  of  isolated  limbs.  Here  the  protection  offered  by  the  shoes 

"The  use  of  infant  footprints  for  identification  has  already  been  inaugurated  in 
the  Chicago  Lying-in  Hospital,  by  the  Superintendent,  Miss  Christie,  but  thus  far  their 
use  is  wholly  supplementary  to  the  more  usual  methods,  and  there  seems  to  be,  so  far 
as  the  authors  can  learn,  no  attempt  at  interpreting  or  indexing  them. 

159 


160  Personal  Identification 


and  stockings  will  frequently  preserve  the  sole,  or  a  portion  of  it,  when 
the  face  is  entirely  unrecognizable,  and  where  finger  prints  can  no  longer 
be  obtained.  In  the  novel  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  "  The  Fair  Maid  of  Perth," 
which  depicts  mediaeval  Scotland,  much  of  the  plot  turns  upon  a  severed 
hand,  found  on  the  pavement  after  a  street  brawl,  but  had  the  Palm  System, 
described  in  the  previous  chapter,  been  in  full  operation,  there  would  have 
been  no  mystery  whatever.  In  the  same  way,  given  an  established  classi- 
fication of  citizens  based  upon  the  soles,  and  operated  in  the  same  Bureau 
with  the  rest,  a  severed  foot  from  a  factory  explosion  could  be  promptly 
and  completely  identified.  This  would  thus  be  analogous  to  the  recent, 
Scotland  Yard  case,  related  in  Chapter  VI  following,  where  a  burglar  left 
a  little  finger  upon  a  high  gate,  torn  off  as  the  criminal  attempted  to  escape. 
One  would  naturally  think  that  in  temperate  climates,  where  shoes 
are  so  universally  worn,  there  would  be  practically  no  need  of  the  study 
of  the  bare  foot  for  chance  impressions  connected  with  crime,  as  is  so  fre- 
quently done  in  the  case  of  the  finger  prints;  yet  it  is  not  infrequent  that 
a  malefactor  commits  his1  crime  barefoot,  in  order  to  move  more  silently, 
and  to  feel  the  ground  in  the  dark.  In  the  tropics,  in  dealing  with  the 
habitually  barefooted  natives,  the  study  of  bare  footprints,  and  of  their 
ridge  patterns,  would  be  of  much  importance. 

Because  of  the  neglect  of  the  use  of  sole  prints,  or  any  part  of  them, 
for  purposes  of  identification,  there  has  been  as  yet  no  published  attempt 
to  reduce  these  complex  areas  to  formulae,  or  to  classify  them  in  any  way.* 
A  system  based  on  that  above  given  for  the  palm  of  the  hand  is  not  feasible, 
mainly  because,  unlike  the  hand,  the  friction  skin  of  the  foot  extends,  with 
important  parts  of  the  general  pattern,  some  distance  up  on  the  sides, 
and  hence  does  not  print  in  an  ordinary  contact  impression.  This  may 
be  seen  in  part  by  comparing  this  Tread-Area  impression,  or  one 
produced  by  placing  the  foot  upon  a  piece  of  paper  as  in  simply  stepping 
or  standing,  with  a  Rolled  Print,  or  one  produced  by  rolling  the  foot,  both 
for  inking  and  for  printing,  from  one  extreme  edge  to  the  other.  Even 
in  a  rolled  print,  however,  the  region  between  the  ball  of  the  foot  and  the 
ends  of  the  toes  is  wanting,  and  it  Is  here  that  the  four  digital  deltas, 
necessary  for  locating  the  Main  Lines,  are  frequently  found.  Occasionally 
these  four  points  lie  within  the  bounds  of  the  tread  area  (Figures  58-60) 
and  the  four  main  lines  may  be  easily  followed,  but  it  more  often  happens, 
as  in  Figures  70,  71  and  72  that  the  digital  deltas,  or  some  of  them,  lie 

*A  popular  article,  dealing  with  the  study  of  the  print  of  the  bare  foot  in  the  detec- 
tion of  the  agent  of  a  crime,  written  by  Melville  Dawson  Post,  has  recently  appeared 
in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  (Feb.  3,  1917),  but  deals  with  proportions  and  the  indica- 
tions of  habitual  posture  and  gait.  It  is,  however,  of  great  interest  to  the  authors  as 
perhaps  the  first  attempt  to  direct  attention  to  the  subject,  and  shows  the  present 
necessity  of  considering  the  ridge  conformation  of  human  soles. 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


above  the  contact  area  of  a  tread  impression,  and  that  the  main  lines  are 
thus  impossible  to  locate. 

Again,  even  although  this  difficulty  were  overcome,  as  by  some  de- 
vice that  would  print  the  entire  surface,  the  main  lines,  when  followed,  are 
almost  always  unsatisfactory.  Often,  as  in  Figure  58,  the  main  lines  come 
together  at  their  terminus  in  the  margin,  or  actually  fuse,  making  a  very 
monotonous  formula;  in  other  cases,  what  with  their  becoming  wound 
up  in  patterns  (Figures  60  and  69)  or  becoming  implicated  in  the  so- 


FIGURE  58.  Tracing  from  a  left-sole  print. 
All  the  digital  deltas  are  present,  and  the  three 
plantar  areas  are  easily  and  distinctly  separated 
from  one  another.  Formula:  A  1. 

called  lower  deltas,  (Figures  59  and  60)  their  course  is  so  complicated  as  to 
defy  any  simple  method  of  expressing  it. 

After  making  numerous  attempts,  each  of  which  worked  with  more 
or  less  ease  until  confronted  by  some  peculiar  case,  hitherto  not  known, 
the  authors  have  decided  to  publish  the  one  that  here  follows.  It  may  not 
allow  of  sufficient  subdivision  to  avoid  some  congestion  in  the  case  of 
the  commonest  formulae,  but  it  possesses  the  advantages  of  being  simple, 
and  of  being  easily  applied  to  the  ordinary  tread  area,  without  requiring 
a  rolled  print.  Beyond  the  scope  of  this  system,  which  concerns  itself 
wholly  with  the  larger  and  more  obvious  features,  there  still  lie  the  in- 
finite possibilities  of  the  ridge  details  of  the  patterns,  particularly  those 
of  the  Ball  Pattern,  and  these,  after  some  few  suggestions,  may  be 


162 


Personal  Identification 


left  to  a  later  investigator,  after  the  use  of  the  sole  becomes  of  general  use 
and  of  serious  practical  importance. 

To  begin  the  study  of  the  sole,  prints  should  be  obtained  in  which, 
like  Figures  58,  59  and  60,  the  digital  deltas  are  well  within  the  boundary 
of  the  usual  print,  and  where  they  can  be  easily  seen.  From  these  the 
four  Main  Lines  should  be  extended  until  they  either  run  over  the  margin, 


FIGURE  59.  Tracing  from  a  left-sole  print. 
All  the  digital  deltas  are  present,  yet  the  division 
of  the  plantar  region  into  its  three  areas  is  not  so 
simple  as  in  Figure  58,  partly  because  of  the  pres- 
ence of  a  lower  delta.  One  of  the  upper  radiants  of 
this  latter  runs  directly  into  the  first  digital  delta, 
and  thus  clearly  separates  the  first  plantar  area 
from  that  of  the  Ball  pattern,  but  its  outer  upper 
radiant  runs  through  the  center  of  the  third  olantar 
area,  and  is  thus  of  no  assistance  in  delineating 
the  areas.  Formula:  W  5d. 

as  in  Figure  58,  or  become  involved  in  a  pattern  or  lower  delta,  as  in  Figures 
59  and  60.  These  serve  to  divide  the  entire  "ball  of  the  foot"  into  four 
areas,  any  or  all  of  which  may  be  quite  plain  and  without  patterns,  or  may 
be  each  covered  by  a  regular  pattern,  with  definite  core  (compare  Figure 
58  with  Figure  60).  These  patterns,  or  the  corresponding  areas,  may  be 
termed,  going  from  the  inner  to  the  outer  sides,  the  Ball  Pattern,  and  the 
three  Plantar  Patterns  (1,  2,  and  3).* 

*Matters  pertaining  to  the  palm  are  called  palmar,  and  those  pertaining  to  the 
sole,  plantar,  from  the  two  Latin  words:  palma,  the  palm,  and  planta,  the  sole.  The 
three  areas,  frequently  marked  with  a  pattern,  lying  in  the  palm  beneath  the  fingers, 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


163 


The  first,  the  Ball  Pattern,  is  almost  always  present,  and  presents 
several  typical  forms;  the  three  Plantar  Patterns  are  more  uncertain  in 
occurrence,  and  may  occur  in  any  combination,  such  as  either  alone,  1  and 
2  united,  1  and  3,  2  and  3,  or  all.  In  form  they  may  appear  as  complete 


FIGURE  60.  Tracing  from  a  right-sole  print. 
Here  the  four  digital  deltas  are  all  oresent,  but  the 
digital  areas  above  them  are  partly  fused,  and  their 
lower  radiants  (the  "Main  Lines"  of  the  palms) 
are  complicated  in  their  relations,  becoming  impli- 
cated in  lower  deltas.  Nevertheless,  the  three 
plantar  areas,  with  their  patterns,  are  very  evident. 
Formula:  W  46dd. 

oval  figures,  i.  e.,  whorls  (Figure  60,  2,  with  an  S-shaped  core)  or  as  loops; 
and  in  this  latter  case  the  loop  may  open  either  way,  up  or  down  (Figure 
60,  compare  area  1  with  area  3).  --^f 

If,  after  a  little  practice  with  prints  in  which  the  digital  deltas  are 
clearly  seen,  he  next  turn  to  others  with  little  or  no  indications  of  these 
points,  he  will  see  that,  as  in  Figures  70,  71,  and  72,  the  three  plantar  areas 

are  thus  correctly  termed  the  Palmar  Areas,  and  the  corresponding  areas  on  the  sole 
of  the  foot  the  Plantar  Areas.  There  are  many  close  correspondences  between  hand 
and  foot,  making  it  almost  a  pity  that  similar  parts  are  distinguished  by  different  names. 
The  great  toe  and  the  four  lesser  ones  precisely  correspond  to  the  thumb  and  the  four 
fingers,  yet  if  we  confine  ourselves  to  English  we  have  the  two  sets  of  names  to  deal 
with.  In  this  case,  however,  we  have  the  Latin  word,  digitus,  anglicized  to  digit,  which 
may  refer  to  any  one  of  the  whole  twenty,  and  this  word  is  frequently  used  here  in  this 
general  sense. 


164 


Personal  Identification 


may  still  be  located  with  some  accuracy,  and  that  there  is  never  serious 
danger  of  confusing  one  with  another.  Where,  as  in  Figure  72,  a  lower 
delta  spreads  out  its  two  upper  radiants  so  wide  that  they  take  in  more 
ridges  than  belong  to  a  single  pattern,  there  is  some  chance  of  overvaluing 
the  territory  that  belongs  to  a  single  area,  but  there  is  even  then  but  little 
opportunity  for  misnumbering  a  pattern  core  that  shows  itself  in  that  place. 
In  this  Figure  72,  for  instance,  a  disturbance  in  the  course  of  the  lines  in- 
cluded within  the  radiants  of  the  lower  delta  indicates  clearly  that  both 
1  and  2  are  brought  within  the  embrace  of  this  widely  expanding  triradius; 


FIGURE  61.  Diagram  of  a  typical  Ball  pattern,  of  the  whorl  type,  showing  the 
three  original  deltas,  surrounding  the  pattern,  and  embracing  and  defining  a  pattern 
area.  Imagine  either  of  the  three  deltas  to  be  removed  in  turn,  and  the  pattern  will 
become  a  loop,  opening  upwards,  if  a  is  removed;  inwards  (i.e.,  toward  the  inner,  or 
great  toe  side  of  the  foot)  if  b  becomes  lost;  and  downward  and  outward  (i.  c.,  toward 
the  little  toe)  if  c  is  removed. 

similarly,  in  Figure  69,  the  second  area,  without  any  such  reason,  has 
widened  far  beyond  its  usual  proportions,  and  all  but  crushed  out  of  exis- 
tence the  third  area,  indicated  simply  by  converging  lines.  Should  one 
be  working  upon  a  basis  that  demanded  an  exact  set  of  boundaries  for  these 
three  plantar  areas,  cases  would  frequently  be  met  with  where  there  would  be 
much  uncertainty,  but  if  a  system  calls  only  for  determining  the  presence  or 
absence  of  each  of  the  three  patterns,  without  regard  to  the  areas  themselves, 
there  is  no  likelihood  that  a  really  serious  difficulty  would  ever  be  met  with. 

The  system  which  the  authors  present  here  is  therefore  based  upon  the 
detail  of  the  pattern  upon  the  BALL  AREA,  the  presence  or  absence  of  pat- 
terns upon  the  THREE  PLANTAR  AREAS,  and  the  presence  or  absence 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


165 


of  LOWER  DELTAS;  all  being  points  which  can  be  readily  ascertained  upon 
a  tread  area  print,  and  are  in  no  way  dependent  upon  features  of  uncertain  oc- 
currence. This  system,  presented  as  a  proposal  to  be  put  to  later  test,  and 
then  accepted,  modified,  or  abandoned,  as  the  results  suggest,  is  as  follows* : 
Method  of  Formulating  Sole  Patterns.  To  start  with,  the  best  and 
most  obvious  point  of  departure  is  the  pattern  on  the  ball  at  the  base  of 
the  great  toe,  the  Ball  Pattern.  As  the  main  weight  of  the  body  is  sus- 
tained here  and  at  the  heel,  the  ridges  covering  these  two  surfaces  are 


FIGURE  62.     The  three  types  of  loops  found  on  the  Ball  area,  caused  by  the  failure 
of  the  respective  deltas.     Compare  with  Figure  61. 

especially  strong  and  heavy.  It  happens  also  that  the  Ball  Pattern  is 
not  only  nearly  always  present,  but  is  very  variable,  and  that  further, 
these  variations  can  be  readily  classified  into  certain  definite  types. 

In  its  most  complete  form,  this  pattern  appears  as  a  Whorl,  quite 
similar  to  the  finger-tip  pattern  of  the  same  name,  except  that  it  is  here 
surrounded  by  three  deltas,  instead  of  two.  (Figures  59,  60,  and  72.) 
In  its  most  typical  form  (Figure  61)  the  ridges  form  concentric  circles  about 
the  center,  and  its  three  deltas  are  placed  at  equal  intervals  about  it,  each 
with  two  radiants  helping  to  surround  the  core,  while  the  third  is  pointed 
away  from  it.  These  deltas  may  be  designated  as  a,  b,  and  c,  as  indicated, 
a  being  above,  b  along  the  inner  edge,  and  c  below  and  outward,  toward 
the  smaller  toes.  It  seldom  appears  in  this  typical  form,  however,  but 
exhibits  numerous  variations  of  the  deltas,  the  radiants,  and  the  core. 

*As  we  always  hold  the  print  of  a  sole,  as  we  do  that  of  a  hand,  with  the  points  of 
the  digits  directed  upward,  the  terms  of  direction,  up,  down,  outer,  inner,  etc.,  can  be 
used  alike  in  both  cases,  without  confusion.  Up  and  down  are  more  convenient  for 
gene  ral  use  than  the  more  scientific  distal  and  proximal,  which  mean  respectively  toward 


166  Personal  Identification 


To  begin  with,  it  may  be  imagined  that  one  of  the  deltas  may  be 
wanting,  and  that,  as  the  ridges  are  no  longer  confined  at  that  point,  they 
gush  or  flow  out  in  the  direction  of  the  break.  We  may  thus  have 
Type  A,  in  which  the  a  delta  is  wanting,  and  the  ridges  flow  upward,  be- 
tween the  great  toe  and  the  next;  Type  B,  where  there  is  no  b  delta,  and 
where  the  ridges  flow  toward  the  inner  margin  of  the  foot;  and  finally 
Type  r,  where  the  c  delta  fails,  allowing  the  ridges  to  flow  across  the  foot, 
downward  and  outward.  These  three  types  actually  occur,  Type  A  vary 
commonly,  Type  B  rather  seldom,  while  Type  C  is  extremely  rare.  (Figure 
62). 

Type  A  is  shown  in  Figure  58  and  Type  B  in  Figure  69.  The  whorl, 
the  original  type,  designated  as  W,  is  shown  in  such  cases  as  Figures  59 
and  72.  Aside  from  all  these,  the  Ball  Pattern  may  be  entirely  wanting, 
or  represented  merely  by  a  convergence  of  ridges,  without  a  core,  and  this 
condition  may  be  designated  simply  by  an  "O."  (Figure  68.) 

By  following  the  above  directions  the  great  majority  of  Ball  Patterns 
may  be  easily  classified  as  A's,  B's,  C's,  W's,  or  O's,  but  there  remain  a  few 
which,  from  some  modification  of  the  core,  do  not  so  plainly  fall  within 
these  five  types.  (Examples,  Figures  63,  64,  65,  66,  and  67.)  As  is  done 
in  the  case  of  the  finger  patterns,  these  are  all  classed  as  whorls;  an  ex- 
ponent letter,  placed  to  the  right  and  a  little  above  the  W  designating  the 
particular  variety.  So  far  as  is  known,  all  such  departures  will  come  under 
one  of  the  following  cases,  and  will  be  written  Wsm,  WL-P',  WT'L-,  and  so  on. 

sm  =  a  seam,  where  a  number  of  ridges  come  to  an  end  along  the  same  line,  and 

abut  upon  a  system  of  ridges  going  the  other  way;   often  seen  in  connection 

with  the  "A"  delta. 

a,  6,  or  c;   a  modified  whorl  approximating  either  type  A,  B,  or  C,  as  given  below. 
L.  P. ;  a  whorl  composed  of  two  interlocking  loops,  the  cores  of  the  loops,  entering 

the  field  of  view  from  the  same  side;  (=  a  "Lateral  Pocket,"  Figure  66.) 
T.  L.;  a  whorl  composed   of  two  interlocking  loops,  the  cores  of  the  loop  entering 

the  field  of  view  from  opposite  sides;  (=  a  "Twin  Loop,"  Figure  65.) 
C.  P.;  a  loop  with  a  pocket  in  its  center,  having  one  or  more  recurving  ridges,  thus 

putting  a  pattern  so  designated  in  the  whorl  class;  (=  "Central  Pocket.") 
S  =  a  whorl,  the  center  of  which  is  in  the  form  of  an  S-shaped  figure. 

In  this  latter  case  the  core  of  the  whorl,  instead  of  consisting  of  con- 
centric ovals,  as  would  be  found  in  a  typical  pattern  of  this  type,  becomes 
modified  to  form  an  S-shaped  figure  of  greater  or  less  extent.  When 
small,  as  in  Figure  60,  it  would  naturally  be  expressed  as  still  an  almost 

the  tips  of  the  digits  and  toward  the  body;  and  although  these  latter  may  be  always  applied, 
no  matter  in  what  position  a  print  is  held,  one  can  soon  get  into  the  habit  of  always 
holding  a  print  with  the  fingers  or  toes  pointing  to  the  top  of  the  page,  in  which  case  the 
simpler  terms,  although  relative,  will  cause  no  confusion.  This  is  similar  to  the  universal 
modern  method  of  holding  a  map  with  the  direction  north  at  the  top,  unless  otherwise 
specified. 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


167 


typical  whorl,  with  a  modified  center,  or  Ws.  When,  however,  the  S-figure 
becomes  so  large  as  to  involve  practically  all  the  ridges  of  the  pattern, 
as  in  Figures  63  and  64  it  will  be  seen  that  these  whorls  are  composed  of 
two  interlocking  loops.  These  may  be  designated  by  the  exponents  T.  L. 
for  the  Twin-Loop  (Figure  65),  a  composite  where  the  cores  seem  to  enter 
the  field  of  view  from  opposite  sides;  or  L.  P.  for  the  composite  called 
Lateral-Pocket  (Figure  66),  where  the  cores  enter  from  the  same  side. 
Again  a  ball  pattern  may  appear  as  an  A  loop,  having  a  pocket  in  its  center 


FIGURE  63.  Tracing  from  the 
print  of  a  left  sole.  The  four  digital 
deltas  are  all  present,  but  the  radi- 
ants that  help  in  separating  the 
three  plantar  areas  assume  a  very 
erratic  course.  The  location  of 
the  three  areas  is,  nevertheless, 
clear,  and  the  pattern  formula  can 
be  readily  made  out.  The  ball  pat- 
tern is  a  twin  loop.  Formula: 
WT'L-  5d. 

with  one  or  more  recurving  ridges,  a  Central  Pocket  (Figure  67).  Such 
patterns  also  are  considered  as  whorls  and  the  exponents  C.  P.  are  used  to 
indicate  them.  Care  must  be  taken  to  make  sure  that  the  ridges  around 
this  pocket  recurve;  for  many  times  converging  ridges  will  have  the  same 
general  appearance,  and  may  be  differentiated  only  by  the  use  of  a  magni- 
fying glass.  Loop  Patterns,  with  no  recurving  lines  regardless  of  their 
general  appearance,  will  remain  in  the  loop  class. 


168 


Personal  Identification 


Such  difficult  cases  occur  also  in  finger  prints  and  in  all  systems 
founded  upon  patterns,  and,  to  use  an  illustration  of  Galton's,  cause  about 
the  same  amount  of  difficulty  as  do  such  surnames  as  the  Macs  and  the 


FIGURE  64.  Tracing  from  the 
print  of  a  left  sole.  The  three  last 
digital  deltas  are  present,  but  the 
fate  of  the  first  is  uncertain.  Al- 
though unusual,  and  quite  out  of 
place,  the  shape  of  the  ridges  in  the 
region  of  the  first  plantar  area  sug- 
gests that  the  first  digital  delta  is 
fused  with  delta  a  of  the  ball  pattern 
or  that  it  is  replaced  by  it.  The  ball 
pattern  is  a  typical  Twin  Loop,  like 
that  of  the  preceding  and  succeed- 
ing Figures,  the  two  loops  filling 
the  entire  space.  This  counts  in 
formulation  as  a  Whorl,  with  the 

exponent  letters  T.  W.     Formula: 
WT.I,   L 


FIGURE  65.  Tracing  from  the 
print  of  a  left  foot,  reversed,  for 
better  comparison  with  Figures  41 
and  42;  natural  size.  The  ball 
pattern  is  a  modified  Whorl,  the 
pattern  being  composed  of  two  in- 
terlocking loops,  which  arise  from 
opposite  sides.  This  is  precisely 
the  same  as  the  Twin-Loop  com- 
posite on  the  finger  bulbs,  and  may 
be  so  named.  In  formulating,  it 
counts  as  a  W,  with  an  exponent 
T.  L.  Formula:  WT-L-  1. 


Mcs  in  a  directory.  That  is,  if  one  is  looking  up  a  case  involving  a  doubt- 
ful type,  he  may  have  to  look  in  two  separate  places  before  he  finds  it. 
As  a  compensation  for  this  slight  hesitation,  however,  such  transition  cases 
are  in  themselves  so  unusual  that  their  presence  marks  with  much  definite- 
ness  the  subject  possessing  them.  The  exponent  system,  above  explained, 
furnishes  an  excellent  way  of  indicating  a  tendency  toward  another  type; 
so  that  such  designations,  as  indicated  above,  may  occasionally  be  found 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


169 


useful.  In  classifying  and  filing  no  attention  should  ever  be  paid  to  a 
descriptive  exponent,  and  the  case  should  be  filed  under  the  main  letter 
above. 

The  first  subdivision  of  sole-prints,  then,  rests  upon  the  Form  of 
the  Ball  Pattern,  and   includes  the  groups  W,  A,  B,  C,  and  O.     These 


FIGURE  66.  Tracing  from  the 
print  of  a  right  foot;  natural  size. 
The  ball  pattern  is  composed  of  two 
interlocking  loops,  which  form  a 
figure  corresponding  exactly  to  the 
Lateral  Pocket  loop  of  the  finger 
bulbs.  This  is  to  be  classed  as  a 
Whorl,  with  the  exponent  letters 
L.P.  Formula:  WL'P- 37. 


FIGURE  67.  Tracing  from  the  print  of  aright 
foot;  natural  size.  The  ball  pattern  has  all  the 
appearance  of  an  "A"  loop,  but  the  pocket  in 
the  center,  with  the  recurving  ridges,  puts  it  in 
the  Whorl  class,  as  the  variety  known  as  a  Cen- 
tral Pocket.  In  formulating  this,  it  is  classed  as 
a  Whorl,  with  the  exponent  letters  C.  P.  For- 
mula: Wc<p-  13. 


are  quite  unequal  in  occurrence,  and  in  practice  subdivisions  W  and  A  will 
be  overcrowded,  especially  the  latter.  Groups  O  and  B  will  be  small,  while 
C  will  be  hardly  represented  (one  case  in  some  500  individuals). 

To  break  up  these  two  large  groups,  W  and  A,  the  same  expedient 
may  be  resorted  to  as  is  done  in  the  finger  prints  (Chapter  VI),  namely, 
the  ridge  count.  Here,  in  both  A's  and  W's,  the  ridges  to  be  counted  ex- 
tend between  the  core  of  the  pattern  and  the  b  delta,  the  one  upon  the 


170  Personal  Identification 


inner  side  of  the  foot.  In  the  case  of  the  A  type  the  delta  is  fixed  at  the 
place  where  there  is  a  forking  of  a  ridge  at  the  boundary  of  the  pattern  on 
the  inside  of  the  foot,  one  radiant  passing  upward,  the  other  downward 
and  in  a  direction  as  if  it  were  to  cross  the  foot  to  the  outer  side,  but  later 
curving  upward,  and  forming  the  outside  boundary  of  the  loop,  toward 
the  lesser  toes.  This  is  the  most  common  form  of  the  delta,  but  there  will 
be  found  instances  where  there  is  no  forking,  but  instead  the  wide  separa- 
tion of  two  adjoining  ridges  that  have  been  running  parallel  from  the  inner 
side  of  the  foot.  Here  the  first  ridge  beyond  this  separation,  even  though 
it  be  but  a  dot,  will  be  considered  the  delta.  The  point  of  core  of  the 
loop  will  be  considered  the  tip  of  the  central  ridge,  if  there  are  one  or  three 
of  them,  and  the  tip  of  the  furthest  one  from  the  delta,  when  there  are  two. 
In  counting,  the  core  and  the  delta  are  excluded,  only  those  ridges  being 
counted  which  intervene  between  these  two  points,  and  are  crossed  by  an 
imaginary  line  between  the  two.  In  counting  the  ridges  of  whorls,  type 
W,  there  will  be  found  but  little  difficulty  in  making  a  decision  as  to  the 
core;  in  Twin-loops  and  in  Lateral  pockets  the  core  furthest  from  the  b 
delta  is  taken.*  (cf.  the  rules  for  locating  these  points  in  case  of  finger 
prints.) 

Many  hundred  prints  of  both  types  have  been  counted,  and  of  these 
50  per  cent  have  been  found  to  have  a  count  of  less  than  26  ridges,  and 
the  other  50  per  cent,  26  or  more.  Thus,  if  we  give  the  sign  —  to  the 
first  and  the  sign  +  to  the  last,  the  large  A  and  W  classes  are  each  divided 
into  two  equal  groups.  There  will  be  cases  where  the  b  delta  will  not  be 
printed,  as  it  is  often  placed  a  little  above  the  tread  area,  the  print 
made  by  a  simple  step,  but  if  a  count  of  26  or  more  can  be  made  out,  the 
sign  is  naturally  +.  Furthermore  a  slight  pressure  with  the  fingers  of 
the  operator  when  printing  will  generally  bring  down  into  contact  with 
plate  and  paper  a  small  fold  of  skin  beyond  the  usual  tread  area,  and  thus 
practically  insure  the  inclusion  of  this  important  point,  the  b  delta. 

Splitting  the  two  largest  groups  by  this  means  into  equal  subdivisions 
we  have,  for  the  first  classification  of  soles,  seven  classes,  as  follows: 

W+ 

w— 

A  + 
A— 
B 
O 

The  next  procedure,  by  which  each  one  of  these  seven  groups  may  be 
divided  still  further,  deals  with  the  Three  Plantar  Areas,  which  may  be 
classified  in  accordance  with  the  patterns  they  bear. 

*Further  data  concerning  the  method  of  counting  the  ridges,  with  illustrations  of 
several  cases,  will  be  found  farther  on  in  this  chapter. 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot  171 


As  shown  above,  when  the  digital  deltas  are  all  present  in  a  print, 
as  in  Figures  58,  59,  and  60,  the  limits  of  these  three  areas  may  be  marked 
out  with  considerable  precision;  in  other  cases  we  may  be  reasonably 
sure  of  their  boundaries  from  the  presence  and  arrangements  of  the  pat- 
terns, as  in  Figures  69  and  70.  In  some  cases,  too,  a  lower  delta  will  be 
found  to  assist  in  defining  the  areas  (Figures  60  and  71),  yet  this  must 
not  be  too  definitely  relied  upon,  as  a  lower  delta  may  be  found  to  embrace 
too  much,  as  in  Figure  72,  or  too  little,  as  in  Figure  70.  Yet,  with  all 
these  things  to  guide  one,  there  will  always  be  enough  data  to  allow  the 
recognition  and  location  of  a  plantar  pattern,  when  present,  or  to  assure 
one  of  its  absence. 

When  present,  a  Plantar  pattern  may  assume  one  of  three  forms:  it 
may  be  (1)  a  Loop  with  the  opening  at  the  top  like  the  letter  U  (Figure  59,  2); 

(2)  a  Loop  with  the  opening  at  the  bottom,  like  an  inverted  U  (Figure  60,  1); 

(3)  a  Whorl,  generally  drawn  out  in  an  oval  (Figure  60,  2.)     A  fourth 
condition  is,  of  course,  (4)  an  area  without  a  pattern  (Figure  59,  1  and  3; 
Figure  58).     By  employing  for  these  four  conditions  the  symbols  U,  fl, 
W,  and  O,  respectively,  and  writing  them  out  in  order,  a  formula  is  ob- 
tained which  to  a  certain  extent  represents  pictorially  the  condition  of  the 
three  Plantar  areas  of  a  given  sole.     The  usual  order  from  left  to  right 
should  be  always  employed  in  writing  out  the  formula,  irrespective  of 
whether  the  sole  is  a  left  or  a  right  one,  although  the  "picture,"  as  such, 
while  dealing  with  the  right  foot,  will  be  a  reverse  of  the  picture  from  the 
left  foot.     That  is,  a  print  of  the  right  foot  reads  naturally  from  left  to 
right,  and  corresponds  in  order  with  the  written  formula;   a  print  of  the 
left  foot  reads  from  right  to  left,  but  its  formula  is  written  from  left  to 
right,  as  is  usual. 

To  familiarize  himself  with  the  determination  of  the  conditions  of 
the  three  Plantar  areas,  and  with  this  method  of  formulating  them,  the 
reader  is  advised  to  study  the  various  tracings  of  soles  given  in  this  chapter, 
and  at  the  same  time  follow  through  the  descriptions  and  formulations 
here  given. 

Figure  58.  Here,  with  the  four  digital  deltas  present,  it  is  an  easy 
matter  to  separate  the  three  Plantar  areas.  No  one  of  them  has  a  pattern 
and  the  formula  is  O  O  O. 

Figure  59.  Here,  also,  the  digital  deltas,  aided  by  a  lower  delta,  defi- 
nitely mark  out  the  areas.  The  second  alone  bears  a  pattern,  and  the 
formula  is  O  U  O. 

Figure  60.  Owing  to  fusions  in  the  digital  areas  at  the  base  of  the 
toes  the  precise  limits  of  the  Plantar  areas  are  not  easy  to  mark.  This 
makes  no  difference,  however,  in  the  pattern  formulation,  as  the  general 
regions  are  obvious  enough.  All  bear  patterns,  the  formula  being  U  W  U. 

Figure  63.     In  this  print  the  digital  deltas,  which  may  always  be 


172  Personal  Identification 


relied  upon  when  present,  definitely  mark  off  the  three  Plantar  areas. 
The  lower  delta  here  furnishes  a  radiant  which,  uniting  with  the  one 
proceeding  from  the  first  digital  delta,  clearly  separates  the  ball  area  from 
the  first  Plantar,  but  otherwise  the  radiants  embrace  the  entire  Plantar 
region  and  are  useless  for  our  purpose.  Area  2  alone  possesses  a  pattern, 
and  the  formula  runs  O  U  O. 

Figure  64.     Here  the  areas  are  well  marked  and  all  patternless.     In 
such  a  case,  where  the  absence  of  all  pattern  cores  on  the  Plantar  region 


FIGURE  68.  Tracing  from  the 
sole  print  of  a  left  foot.  The  four 
digital  deltas  are  all  present.  Their 
radiants  recurve,  but  there  is  no 
lower  delta.  The  ball  pattern  is 
wanting.  Formula:  O  5. 

is  so  obvious,  a  division  into  the  three  areas  is  not  necessary,  and  the  for- 
mula may  be  written  at  a  glance  as  O  O  O.  The  invasion  of  Plantar 
area  1  into  the  Ball  pattern  is  unique. 

Figure  68.  The  narrow  loop  shown  in  area  2  is  plainly  the  remnant 
of  a  U-shaped  pattern  belonging  to  that  area.  Formula,  O  U  O. 

Figure  69.  In  this  sole  the  pattern  belonging  to  area  2  has  become 
so  broad  that  it  has  all  but  pressed  out  of  existence  the  minute  rudiment 
of  the  third  area.  This  last  shows  by  the  converging  lines  the  last  traces 
of  a  pattern,  but,  as  there  are  no  ridges  that  actually  recurve,  there  is  techni- 
cally no  pattern  there.  This  reduces  the  formula  to  the  very  common  one, 
O  U  O,  although,  if  desired,  the  rudiment  of  the  third  pattern  may  be 
expressed  by  a  small  exponent  letter  r,  placed  to  the  right  of,  and  a  little 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


173 


above  the  last  O.  This  is  for  description  only,  and  should  in  no  way  be 
considered  in  classification. 

Figure  70.  This  figure  shows  plainly  the  unreliability  of  a  lower 
delta,  which  here  fails  to  include  the  entire  second  area.  Yet,  although 
this  is  evidently  the  case,  and  although  the  pattern  core  is  small  and  pushed 
far  towards  the  outer  side,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  Pattern  2. 
Formula,  QUO. 

Figure  71.  This  is  like  the  preceding,  but  with  the  lower  delta  open 
sufficiently  to  include  the  entire  second  area.  The  lower  radiant  of  this 


FIGURE  69.     Tracing  from  a  print  FIGURE  70.     Tracing  from  the  print 

of  a  left  sole.     The  ball  pattern  is  a  of  a  left  sole.     The  lower    delta  em- 

typical  B  loop,  opening  to  the  inner  braces  only  a  part  of  the  second  plan- 

margin.     The  second  and  third  plantar  tar  area.     Formula:    A  5d. 

areas  are  closely  associated,  without 
definite  boundaries  between  them,  but 
the  disposition  of  the  ridges  suggests 
that  the  second  pattern  has  become  so 
large  that  it  has  almost  suppressed  the 
third  area.  This  latter  still  shows  the 
vestiges  of  a  pattern,  yet  cannot  be 
counted,  as  it  has  no  recurving  ridges. 
Formula:  B  5d. 

lower  triradius  comes  down  in  such  a  way  as  to  separate  the  parallel  ridges 
of  areas  1  and  3,  which  come  into  contact  below  the  second  area.  The 
ridges  of  area  1  become  included  within  the  Ball  area,  but  those  of  3  do 
not.  Formula,  QUO. 

Figure  72.     In  this  curious  sole,  areas  1  and  2  are  included  within 
the  two  upper  radiants  of  the  lower  delta,  area  2  showing  the  effect  of 


174 


Personal  Identification 


crowding.  Technically  its  pattern  is  obliterated,  as  there  are  no  recurving 
lines,  but  its  place  is  indicated  by  the  converging  ridges.  This  may  be 
marked  in  the  formula  by  an  r,  if  desired.  Formula,  U  O  O. 

Figure  73.  A  sole  with  the  common  formula  QUO,  and  with  a 
large  lower  delta,  the  upper  radiants  of  which  include  the  entire  Plantar 
region. 

Although  by  no  means  equally  common,  the  possible  combinations 
of  terms  in  the  pattern  formula  of  soles  is  64,  as  shown  by  the  table  below. 


FIGURE  71.  Tracing  from  the 
print  of  a  left  sole.  This  is  similar  to 
the  previous  one,  but  with  the  lower 
delta  embracing  more  of  the  second 
area,  perhaps  all  of  it.  Formula:  A  5d. 


FIGURE  72.  Tracing  from  the 
print  of  a  left  sole.  Here  areas  1  and 
2  are  practically  fused,  but  the  ridges 
indicate  clearly  that  the  loop,  which 
forms  the  single  pattern  here,  belongs 
to  1.  Formula:  W  21d. 


If  one  is  in  possession  of  this  table,  he  may  materially  shorten  a  sole  for- 
mula by  using,  instead  of  the  three  characters,  the  number  here  affixed. 
Thus,  instead  of  writing  out  in  full  the  formula  W  U  O,  use  the  number 
57;  or,  conversely,  if  a  sole  formula  reading  A9  is  received,  it  will  mean 
that  the  sole  in  question  has  a  Ball  pattern  consisting  of  a  loop  opening 
upward,  followed  by  a  Plantar  area  with  but  one  pattern,  and  that  one 
an  inverted  loop  upon  the  second  area.  Thus,  by  means  of  a  single  capital 
letter  followed  by  a  single  figure  the  details  of  a  certain  special  sole  print 
are  given  with  so  much  detail  that  the  main  features  of  a  rather  compli- 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


175 


cated  arrangement  could  be  sketched  with  pencil  and  paper,  corresponding, 
except  in  proportions,  to  the  sole  in  question. 


O.  O.  O.         1. 

U.  O.  O.      17. 

ft.  o.  o.    33. 

W.  O.  O.    49. 

O.  O  U.        2. 

U.  O.  U.      18. 

•    ft.  o.  u.    34. 

W.  O.  U.     50. 

o.  o.  fi.      3. 

u.  o.  n.    19. 

ft.  o.  n.    35. 

w.  o.  a.  si. 

O.  O.  W.        4. 

U.  O.  W.     20. 

ft.  O.  W.      36. 

W.  O.  W.    52. 

O.  U.  O.         5. 

U.  U.  O.      21. 

11.  U.  O.      37. 

W.  U.  O.     53. 

O.  U.  U.         6. 

U.  U.  U.      22. 

11.  U.  U.      38. 

W.  U.  U.     54. 

O.  U  11.        7. 

U.  U.  ft.      23. 

n.  u.  ft.    39. 

W.  U.  ft.     55. 

O.  U.  W.        8. 

U.  U.  W.     24. 

n.  u.  w.    40. 

W.  U.  W.    56. 

o.  n.  o.      9. 

u.  n.  o.    25. 

a.  a.  o.    41. 

W.  U.  O.     57. 

o.  n.  u.     10. 

U.  Q.  U.      26. 

a.  n.  u.    42. 

W.  ft.  U.     58. 

o.  ft.  ft.     n. 

u.  ft.  ft.    27. 

ft.  a.  n.    43. 

w.  ft.  ft.   59. 

o.  ft.  w.    12. 

U.  ft.  W.     28. 

n.  ri.  w.    44. 

w.  ft.  w.  60. 

O.  W.  O.      13. 

U.  W.  O.     29. 

a.  w.  o.    45. 

W.  W.  O.     61. 

o.  w.  u.    u. 

U.  W.  U.     30. 

ft.  W.  U.     46. 

W.  W.  U.     62. 

o.  w.  ft.    io. 

u.  w.  n.    31. 

ft.  w.  fi.    47. 

W.  W.  Q.     63. 

O.  W.  W.     16. 

U.  W.  W.    32. 

ft.  W.  W.    48. 

W.  W.  W.    64. 

A  third  further  step  in  classifying  sole  prints  is  found  in  the  presence 
or  absence  of  lower  deltas,  and  the  number  of  them  that  occur.  Attention 
has  already  been  called  to  these,  and  their  occasional  assistance  in  deter- 
mining the  limits  of  a  plantar  area.  They  are  seen  singly,  in  all  sorts  of 
relationships  to  the  other  parts,  in  Figures  59,  63,  69,  70,  71,  72,  and  73, 
while  two  are  seen  in  Figure  60.  Rarely  three  are  found,  but  never  more, 
leading  to  the  suspicion  that  originally,  i.e.  in  the  typical  form,  there  was 
one  of  these  at  the  base  of  each  of  the  three  Plantar  areas,  serving  as 
one  of  its  typical  three  deltas.  This  original  relation  is  suggested  by 
Figure  60.  In  the  same  way  a  single  one  may  sometimes  be  considered 


176  Personal  Identification 


the  result  of  the  fusion  of  two  of  the  original  ones,  notably  in  such  cases 
as  Figure  72,  where  the  radiants  embrace  two  patterns. 

For  practical  formulation,  and  leaving  aside  all  these  theories  in  the 
present  case,  we  simply  note  the  presence  of  these  lower  deltas,  indi- 
cating them,  when  present,  by  the  letter  d,  added  to  the  pattern  formula, 
a  letter  for  each  delta  present.  Thus  the  complete  formulation  of  a  sole 
consists  of  three  parts:  (1)  the  letter  indicating  the  Ball  pattern,  (2)  the 
formula  for  the  three  Plantar  Areas  (or  its  abbreviation),  and  (3)  the 
Lower  Deltas. 

Written  out  completely,  the  soles  here  illustrated  are  formulated  as 
follows  :* 

FIGURE  FORMULA  WRITTEN  IN  FULL  FORMULA  ABBREVIATED 

58  A     OOO  A     1 

59  WOUOd  W5d 

60  W   IlWUdd  W     46  dd 

63  WOUOd  W5d 

64  W   OOO  W     1 

68  O     QUO  O     5 

69  BOUOd  B5d 

70  AOUOd  A5d 

71  AOUOd  A5d 

72  WUOOd  Wl7d 

73  A     OUOd  A     5d 

We  have  thus,  in  the  formulae  presented  in  the  middle  column,  and, 
by  the  help  of  a  table  equally  clearly  expressed  in  the  right-hand  column, 
a  simple  method  for  recording  in  the  briefest  possible  form  the  main  char- 
acteristics of  a  sole.  This  does  not  take  into  account  any  of  the  details 
of  the  separate  ridges,  but  serves  merely  to  divide  a  large  collection  into 
small  subdivisions  for  easy  reference.  Let  us  now  see  how  such  formulas 
may  be  classified  and  placed  in  compartments. 

To  begin  with,  we  have  the  character  for  the  Ball  pattern,  which  falls 
into  seven  distinct  classes.  If  these  are  placed  in  the  natural  alphabetical 
order,  and  if  a  +  sign  precede  a  — ,  they  should  be  arranged  as : 

A  + 

A— 

B 

C 

O 

W+ 

w— 

Those  coming  under  each  one  of  these  seven  classes  may  be  next 
arranged  according  to  the  formulae  for  the  Plantar  formulae,  following  the 

"The  distinctions  of  +  and  — ,  recommended  for  subdividing  the  A's  and  the  W's 
are  not  used  here. 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot  177 


order  of  the  table  given  above,  in  64  subdivisions.  If  these  occur  under 
each  of  the  seven  primary  classes,  we  now  have  7  x  64,  or  448.  Each  of 
these  448  subdivisions  may  be  still  farther  subdivided  by  the  characters 
of  the  lower  delta,  whether  one,  two,  three,  or  none,  four  subdivisions,  making 
448  x  4,  or  1,792  separate  groups. 

Now  in  the  absence  of  sufficient  data,  it  is  as  yet  impossible  to  say 
whether  in  actual  occurrence  these  1,792  groups  are  anywhere  near  equally 
represented  in  the  human  race,  and  whether  perhaps  certain  ones,  like  A5, 
and  Wl,  may  contain  an  overwhelming  majority,  while  others  may  never 
actually  occur.  Only  a  long  practical  trial  will  decide  this  point,  but  we 
can  rest  assured  that,  in  the  infinity  of  individual  variations  of  which  so 
complicated  a  configuration  as  that  of  the  sole  is  capable,  it  will  be  an 
extremely  simple  matter  so  to  modify  the  details  of  classification  that  it 
will  prove  perfectly  satisfactory. 

Thus  far  we  have  spoken  of  the  use  of  a  single  foot,  formulating  and 
classifying  it  by  itself.  The  use  of  both  feet  will  greatly  multiply  the 
subdivisions,  since,  although  the  examination  of  many  hundred  sole  prints 
has  shown  that  the  two  feet  have  the  same  formula  in  very  many  cases, 
so  also  there  have  been  found  many  cases,  rather  more  than  the  first,  in 
which  there  are  marked  differences  in  the  two.  The  Ball  pattern  may 
belong  to  distinct  types;  the  formula  for  the  three  Plantar  patterns  may 
vary  greatly;  or  often,  when  otherwise  the  soles  are  similar,  a  lower  delta 
may  be  present  on  one  side  and  not  on  the  other.  If  the  two  sides  of  the 
same  individual  were  quite  independent  of  each  other,  and  as  likely  to  differ 
as  two  rights  or  two  lefts  of  different,  unrelated  human  beings,  then  the 
number  of  possible  compartments  into  which  a  large  collection  of  sole 
prints  could  be  divided  (put  in  pairs)  would  naturally  be  the  square  of  the 
number  calculated  above;  1,792  =  3,204,264,  which  would  take  a  very 
large  office  to  provide  for;  but,  with  the  large  amount  of  similarity  between 
the  two,  the  number,  though  large,  would  not  be  nearly  so  large  as  this. 

Suppose  that  we  wish  to  arrange  a  collection  of  sole  prints,  taken  in 
pairs,  with  the  formulae  written  in  the  form  of  a  common  fraction,  with  the 
right  foot  above  and  the  left  below.  With  the  A  and  W  both  divided  by 
the  +  and  —  signs,  as  we  propose,  there  are  forty -nine  possible  classes 
for  primary  subdivision,  that  is,  subdivisions  based  upon  the  character 
of  the  Ball  pattern  only.  These  are  shown,  in  tabular  form,  upon  the 
next  page. 

That  is,  worked  out  on  paper  there  are  actually  49  possible  classes 
into  which  to  put  the  formulas  of  the  soles,  grouped  in  pairs,  but  that  is 
unfortunately  a  long  way  from  asserting  either  that  all  of  the  49  will  be 
about  equally  populous,  or  even  that  all  the  types  will  actually  occur  at 
all.  Since,  for  instance,  Type  C  is  extremely  rare,  all  the  groups  into 
which  a  C  is  introduced,  13  of  them,  are  practically  non-existent,  which 


178 


Personal  Identification 


at  once  reduces  the  available  groups  from  49  to  36.  Again,  owing  to  the 
tendency  for  the  two  soles  to  resemble  each  other,  it  is  altogether  probable 
that  such  groups  as  -j-p.  -f  •  or  -^  will  be  much  fuller  than  many  of  the 
others. 


Right 

A  + 

A  + 

A  + 

A  + 

A  + 

A  + 

A  + 

Left 

A  + 

A"*™" 

B 

C 

O 

w+ 

W— 

Right 

A— 

A— 

A— 

A— 

A— 

A— 

A— 

Left 

A  + 

A— 

B 

C 

O 

W  + 

W— 

Riffht 

B 

B 

B 

B 

B 

B 

B 

Left 

A  + 

A— 

B 

C 

O 

W  + 

W— 

Right 

C 

C 

C 

C 

C 

C 

C 

Left 

A  + 

A— 

B 

C 

O 

w+ 

W— 

Right 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

o 

O 

Left 

A  + 

^  

B 

C 

O 

w+ 

W— 

Right 

W  + 

W+ 

W+ 

w+ 

w+ 

w+ 

w+ 

Left 

A  + 

A— 

B 

C 

O 

w+ 

w— 

Right 

W— 

W— 

W— 

W— 

W— 

W— 

W— 

Left 

A+ 

A— 

B 

C 

0 

w+ 

W— 

The  Plantar  patterns,  with  64  variations  for  each  sole,  would,  if  the 
soles  were  independently  variable,  furnish  64  classes,  or  4,096,  and  if  each 
of  the  49  classes  based  upon  the  Ball  patterns  were  again  subdivided, 
the  number  of  possible  classes  would  be  49  x  4,096,  or  200,704. 

Lastly  the  occurrence  of  lower  deltas  admits,  in  the  two  feet,  the 
following  separate  classes,  d  standing  for  the  occurrence  of  such  a  delta, 
o  for  the  absence,  and  repeating  the  d  for  each  delta : 


d 

d 

d 

d 

dd 

dd 

dd 

dd 

d 

dd 

ddd 

o 

d 

dd 

ddd 

o 

ddd 

ddd 

ddd 

ddd 

o 

o 

o 

o 

d 

dd 

ddd 

o 

d 

dd 

ddd 

o 

With  all  possible  classes  used,  we  would  now  have  the  very  large 
number  of  separate  subdivisions  represented  by  49  x  64  x  16,  or  3,211,264, 
i.e.  over  3,200,000.  This  number  is  surely  large  enough  to  allow  consider- 
able reduction  of  the  theoretical  figures,  to  allow  for  non-occurrence  of 
certain  combinations,  and  still  be  large  enough  for  any  practical  test  that 
could  be  applied. 

Although  many  hundreds,  or  even  thousands,  of  sole  prints  must  be 
taken  and  formulated  before  the  actual  occurrence  of  these  groups  can 
become  known,  we  may  begin  the  investigating  by  presenting  here,  in  the 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


179 


form  of  a  table,  the  complete  sole  formulae,  rights  and  lefts  in  pairs,  of 
100  young  women,  collected  in  the  Anthropological  laboratory  of  Smith 


SOLE  FORMULAE  OF  100  WOMEN  STUDENTS  FROM  SMITH  COLLEGE, 
REPRESENTING  ALL  PARTS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  AND  INCLUD- 
ING MANY  ORIGINAL  EUROPEAN  RACES  AND  NATIONALITIES. 


LEFT 

RIGHT 

BOTH 

LEFT 

RIGHT 

BOTH 

LEFT 

RIGHT 

BOTH 

LEFT 

RIGHT 

BOTH 

A5d 

A5d 

A5d 

W59d 

Wl5d 

W15d 

W37d 

A5d 

A5d 

A5d 

A  1 

Al 

Aod 

W  59  d 

W37d 

A5d 

A  5  <1 

A5d 

A5d 

C53d 

W45d 

W45d 

A  1 

Al 

Al 

A37d 

A37d 

A37d 

A5d 

C53d 

A  1 

A37d 

A  5d 

W5d 

W5d 

W38dd 

W37d 

W37d 

W  1 

W9d 

W9d 

O29d 

O  15 

O     15 

A5d 

W38dd 

W  1 

O29d 

W  1 

A  33 

A  33 

W37d 

W38d 

W38d 

A5d 

A  6  .1,1 

A6dd 

A  1 

A5d 

A5d 

W  1 

W37d 

A5d 

Al 

W  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

W13  d 

B9 

B9 

Wl3d 

Wl3d 

Wl3d 

W  1 

A  1 

Wl3d 

Wl3d 

A  5  (1 

B  1 

B  1 

W  1 

W  1 

W  1 

A5d 

A5d 

A5d 

A45d 

A45d 

A45d 

A5d 

W  1 

A5d 

A45d 

Wl 

W  1 

W  1 

A5d 

A5d 

A5d 

W  1 

W  1 

W  1 

O5d 

O  14  d 

O14d 

W  1 

A5d 

Wl 

O5d 

A5d 

A37d 

A37d 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A  2  d 

A2  d 

A2d 

A5  d 

A  1 

A  1 

A2d 

A5d 

A  21  dd 

A  21  dd 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A37d 

A37d 

A37d 

A  1 

A5d 

A5d 

A5d 

A  1 

A37d 

A  1 

B42d 

B2d 

B2d 

W  1 

W5d 

W5d 

B  1 

B33 

B33 

B  13d 

W  13 

W  13 

B42d 

W  1 

B  1 

B  13d 

W49d 

W49d 

W49d 

A5d 

A5d 

A5d 

A37d 

A37d 

A37d 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

W49d 

A  5  d 

A  37  d 

A  1 

W  1 

W  1 

Wl 

W  1 

A  1 

A  1 

O  1 

A  1 

Al 

W13d 

W45d 

W45d 

W  1 

W  1 

Ol 

W13d 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

A6dd 

A6dd 

A  ii  ,1,1 

O38d 

A38d 

A38d 

A5d 

A5d 

A5d 

A  1 

A  (i  ,1,1 

O  38  d 

A5d 

180 


Personal  Identification 


LKTT 

RIGHT 

BOTH 

LEFT 

RIGHT 

BOTH 

LEFT 

RIGHT 

BOTH 

LEFT 

RIGHT 

BOTH 

Wl 

W  1 

W  1 

.A  1 

Al 

Al 

Al    . 

A  1 

Al 

A.6ddd 

A6d 

A0d 

Wl 

Al 

A  1 

A  6  ddd 

W» 

W  37  d 

W37d 

ASd 

A2d 

A2d 

B41 

A  13d 

r  it  >  '  '1 

A  13d 

.    Al 

A  1 

A  1 

W9 

ASd 

B41 

A  1 

A9 

A25d 

A25d 

ASd 

ASd 

ASd 

W  1 

A  Id 

A  1  d 

A  1 

Al 

Al 

A0 

ASd 

W  1 

Al- 

A  1 

W  1 

W  1 

ASd 

A6d 

A6d 

Al 

A  1 

A  1 

A  37  d 

A5d 

ASd 

A  1 

ASd 

A  1 

A  37  -d 

Wl 

A2d 

A2d 

A  33 

ASd 

ASd 

B13d 

A  13d 

A  13d 

BSd 

WSd 

WSd 

Wl 

A  33 

B  13d 

BSd 

W38dd 

W6dd 

W6dd 

A  13d 

A41d 

A  41  d 

Al 

A2d 

A2d 

WSd 

ASd 

ASd 

W38dd 

A13d 

A  1 

WSd 

W37d 

W38d 

W38d 

Al 

A  33 

A  33 

W49d 

W53dd 

W53dd 

O2d 

O  19 

0  19 

W37d 

A  1 

W49d 

O2d 

ASd 

ASd 

ASd 

W9 

W9 

W9 

W  1 

W33 

W33 

ASd 

ASd 

ASd 

ASd 

W9 

Wl 

Aod 

B41 

B9 

B9 

ASd 

ASd 

ASd 

Wl 

W  1 

Wl 

WSd 

W21dd 

W21dd 

B41 

ASd 

Wl 

WSd 

ASd 

A5d 

-ASd 

A  ti  ,1,1 

A46dd 

A46dd 

BSd 

BSd 

BSd 

A  1 

A  1 

A  1 

ASd 

A  <;  ,1,1 

BSd 

A  1 

A  33 

Wl 

W  1 

Wld 

Al7d 

A  17  d 

W13d 

A  13d 

A  13d 

BSd 

WSd 

WSd 

A  33 

Wld 

W13d 

BSd 

W38dd 

\V  11,1,1 

W14dd 

WSd 

A  1 

Al 

W  1 

A  1 

Al 

WSd 

WSd 

WSd 

W38dd 

WSd 

W  1 

WSd 

College,  and  representing  in  their  ancestry  all  parts  of  Europe.  This  is  the 
first  attempt  at  a  practical  application  of  the  system  here  advocated,  and  al- 
though 100  is  a  sadly  inadequate  number  to  draw  conclusions  from,  the 
system  may  be  seen  here  in  actual  use.  No  attempt  is  made  in  this  table 
to  arrange  these  formulae,  and  they  are  recorded  just  as  they  happened 
to  be  collected.  The  subdivision  of  the  A's  and  W's  by  the  signs  +  and 
—  is  also  not  made. 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


181 


If  we  now  arrange  these  200  separate  formulae  as  if  they  were  actually 
to  be  placed  in  a  filing  cabinet,  using  them  as  separate  soles,  without 
grouping  into  pairs,  we  get  the  results  expressed  in  the  table  next  pre- 
sented. The  capital  letters  representing  the  condition  of  the  Ball  patterns 
naturally  succeed  one  another  in  alphabetical  order,  A,  B,  C,  O,  W;  the 
lower  deltas,  in  accordance  with  the  number  present.  We  begin  with  a 
complete  absence,  followed  by  one,  two,  and  three;  d,  dd,  ddd. 

In  this  table  the  figures  indicate  the  times  of  occurrence  of  each  formula 
in  the  two  sides  separately.  The  total  occurrence  of  any  of  the  formula 
represented  is  obtained  by  adding  together  the  two  numbers  given  for 
the  separate  sides. 


TABLE  SHOWING  THE  OCCURRENCE  OF  SPECIFIC  FORMULAE  IN  THE 
FEET  OF  THE  100  INDIVIDUALS  OF  THE  PRECEDING  TABLE 


FORMULA 

L 

R 

FORMULA 

L 

R 

FORMULA 

L 

R 

FORMULA 

L 

R 

A  1 

18 

19 

A38d 

0 

1 

O5d 

1 

0 

Wl3d 

4 

1 

Aid 

0 

1 

A45d 

1 

1 

O  14d 

0 

1 

W  14dd 

0 

1 

A2d 

1 

4 

A46dd 

0 

1 

O  15 

0 

1 

W15d 

0 

1 
1 
1 

A5d 

19 

17 

Bl 

1 

1 

O19 

0 

1 

W21dd 

0 

A6dd 

2 

3 

B2d 

0 

1 

O29d 

1 

0 

W33 

0 

A6ddd 

1 

0 

B5d 

3 

1 

O38d 

1 

0 

W37d 

3 

2 

A9 

1 

0 

B9 

0 

2 

Wl 

15 

8 

W38d 

0 

1 

A  13d 

1 

3 

B  13d 

2 

0 

Wld 

1 

0 

W38dd 

3 

1 

A21dd 

0 

1 

B41 

2 

0 

W5d 

4 

5 

W45d 

0 

2 

Al7d 

0 

1 

B42d 

1 

0 

W6d 

0 

1 

W49d 

2 

1 

A25d 

0 

1 

B33 

0 

1 

Wtfdd 

0 

1 

W53dd 

0 

1 

A41d 

0 

1 

C53d 

1 

0 

W9 

2 

1 

W60d 

1 

0 

A  33 

2 

2 

O  1 

1 

0 

W9d 

0 

1 

A37d 

4 

4 

O2d 

1 

0 

W13 

0 

1 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  there  are  in  all  54  different  formulae 
represented;  that  12  occur  in  the  left  soles  alone,  24  in  the  rights  alone, 
while  16  are  common  to  both.  No  less  than  33  are  found  but  once  in  the 


182  Personal  Identification 


200,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  9  that  occur  five  times  or  more  each. 
These,  the  commonest  and  consequently  the  first  to  need  further  sub- 
division, are  the  following: 


A      1 

A      5  d      - 

37  cases 
36  cases 

W     1 

23  cases 

W     5  d      = 

9  cases 

A    37  d      - 

8  cases 

W  37  d      = 

5  cases 

W  13  d      = 

5  cases 

A      2  d      = 

5  cases 

A      6  dd    = 

5  cases 

As  the  total  number  of  formulae  considered  is  200,  the  percentage  of 
occurrence  of  each  of  these  is  exactly  one  half  of  the  number  here  given. 
Thus  the  first  of  these  common  formulae  will  have  a  percentage  of  18.5 
per  cent;  the  second,  18.0  per  cent;  the  third,  11.5  per  cent,  and  so  on. 

From  the  same  table  the  percentage  of  occurrence  of  the  different 
Ball  patterns  may  also  be  made  out.  Pattern  A  (undivided  by  +  and  — ) 
occurs  in  110  of  the  formulae,  that  is,  55  per  cent;  Pattern  W,  the  next  in 
frequency,  in  66  cases,  or  33  per  cent;  Pattern  B,  the  next,  appears  in 
15  cases,  or  7.5  per  cent;  and  Pattern  O  in  8  cases,  or  4.0  per  cent.  Pat- 
tern C,  the  rarest,  occurs  but  once,  or  .5  per  cent. 

Since  the  more  constant  and  reliable  patterns  occur  along  the  large 
distal  cushion  of  the  foot,  commonly  termed  the  "ball,"  any  system  of 
formulation  and  classification  must  rest  largely  upon  this  portion,  and 
ignore  the  remainder,  extending  through  the  hollow  of  the  arch,  and  termi- 
nating in  the  heel.  However,  although  this  latter  extensive  area  is  usually 
without  special  features,  and  covered  by  approximately  parallel  ridges 
that  run  transversely  across  the  foot,  there  are  in  this  region  occasional 
patterns,  more  or  less  rare  in  their  occurrence,  which,  when  they  happen  to 
be  present,  should  not  be  overlooked. 

The  first,  and  commoner,  of  these,  the  Fibular,  or  Outer  pattern,  con- 
sists of  a  loop,  placed  with  its  convex,  closed,  end,  toward  the  outer  edge, 
and  opening  inward  toward  the  main  part  of  the  sole,  and  the  side  of  the 
great  toe.  It  is  usually  a  rather  small,  narrow  loop,  placed  not  far  from 
the  base  of  the  toes,  below  the  Plantar  Areas  (Figure  73).  Occasionally 
it  is  double,  with  a  delta  between  the  two,  and  in  either  its  single  or  double 
condition  it  may  be  broad  enough  to  cover  the  entire  middle  of  the  foot, 
from  ball  to  heel.  Once  in  a  while  the  core  of  the  loop,  and  perhaps  a 
little  more,  may  lie  within  the  tread  area,  and  form  a  conspicuous  feature 
of  an  ordinary  tread  area  print;  or,  again,  the  core  may  lie  just  beyond  it, 
so  that  the  rounded  ridges  that  form  the  loop  are  not  seen.  In  this  latter 
case  the  core  may  be  printed  by  rolling  the  foot  outward.  This  pattern 


The  Sole  of  the  Foot 


183 


corresponds  to  the  "  Outer,"  or  Ulnar  pattern  of  the  palm,  and  is  named  the 
Fibular  pattern,  from  the  outer  of  the  two  bones  of  the  lower  leg,  the  fibula, 
which  in  position  corresponds  to  the  ulna  of  the  forearm. 


c 


FIGURE  73.  Tracing  of  the  entire 
sole  print  of  a  small  boy,  showing  both 
the  hypothenar  (fibular)  loop  (H),  and 
the  rare  calcar  pattern  (C) .  This  latter 
is  always  associated  with  a  triradius  of 
its  own  (d). 

The  second  of  the  occasional  features  is  the  Calcar  pattern  (Figure  73, 
C).  As  its  name  denotes,  it  occurs  upon  the  heel,  and  is  usually  in  the  form 
of  a  simple  loop,  opening  inward  and  somewhat  forward,  and  accompanied  by 
a  distinct  delta.  The  present  authors  know  of  but  nine  cases  of  this  rarest 
of  patterns  in  some  800  separate  feet,  and  as  in  two  cases  the  individuals 
so  marked  possessed  this  feature  on  both  heels,  this  reduces  the  number  of 


184  Personal  Identification 


different  individuals  thus  marked  to  seven.  Of  these,  again,  five  were 
members  of  one  family,  where  the  pattern  was  undoubtedly  inherited. 
Two  further  cases  have  been  cited  by  European  investigators,  thus  making 
only  eleven  separate  patterns  thus  far  known. 

It  is  plain  that  an  individual  having  a  Calcar  pattern  is  a  marked  man, 
whose  footprints  could  be  identified  almost  at  a  glance.  Such  being  the 
case,  it  is  recommended  that  all  such  be  filed  in  a  division  by  themselves, 
irrespective  of  their  formulae  otherwise.  T^ieir  prints  will  not  take  up  much 
room,  even  in  a  large  collectfon,  and  this  separation  will  be  extremely 
convenient  if  a  question  ever  comes  up  concerning  the  identity  of  an  in- 
dividual so  marked.  ,:H<-\  v» 

The  authors  in  concluding  this  chapter  wish  to  call  attention  to  one 
slight  difficulty,  a  mechanical  one,  easily  overcome;  the  inner  delta  ("B" 
delta),  on  the  inside  edge  of  the  foot,  i&  frequently  placed  over  the  edge 
of  the  tread  area,  and  needs  a  slight  rolling  inward  of  the  foot,  when  being 
printed,  in  order  to  get  it  in  the  print.  This  rolling  in  is,  however,  a  very 
simple  motion,  and  can  be  easily  accomplished  if  the  subject,  just  before 
lifting  his  foot  from  the  inked  surface,  and  again  from  the  paper,  give  the 
foot  a  slight  inward  roll,  enough  to  extend  the  printed  area  about  a  half- 
inch. 


ufr>  CHAPTER  V 

FINGER  PRINTS;    DESCRIPTION  AND  CLASSIFICATION         =  '•" 

"Dactyloscopy,  or  the  proving  of  identity  by  the  digital  patterns,  con- 
sists of  studying  the  patterns  found  upon  the  tips  of  the  digits.  There  is  no 
more  difference  between  the  digital  designs  of  a  child  who  is  just  born,  and  those 
of  the  same  subject  at  two  "years,  five  years,  ten  years,  twenty  years,  than  there 
is  between  successive  enlargements  of  the  same  photographic  negative.  The 
physiological  wear  of  the  skin,  or,  in  other  words,  the^age,  does  not  change  in 
the  least  detail  the  design',  which  is  not  modified,  either  pathologically,  or  by 
the  will  of  the  subject*.-!  _I~n  fact,  even  burns,  whether  due  to  hot  metal,  hot  oil, 
or  boiling  water ^  merely  raise  a^blisjer  which,  after  bursting,  leaves  a  place 
for  new  skin.  ,  Qne  cannot  distirljjwish  the  imprints  taken  before  and  after 
the  burn.  The  finger  patterns  are^  never  identical  in  two  subjects,  for  if  two 
individuals  could:  show^the  same  design,  the  matter  would  lose  all  practical 
interest.  Finally,  the  design?  formed 'by  the- papillary  ridges  (in  particu- 
lar those  of  the  finger  tips)  have  the  triple  characteristics  of  perpetuity,  im- 
mutability, and  variety  they  remain~the  same  during  the  life  of  the  subject, 
who  cannot  change  them.  Certainly  not  a  single  judicial  error  can  be  cited 
which  may  be  imputed  to  them."  —  M.  Edmond  Locard,  Director  of  the  Police 
Laboratory  of  Lyons,  France.  1914. 

DACTYLOSCOPY*  or  the  examination  of  the  finger  patterns  to 
prove  identity,  although  now  in  such  general  use,  may  be  almost 
considered  a  product  of  the  twentieth  century,  as  its  introduction 
through  the  labors  of  Sir  Francis  Galton,  precedes  the  year  1900,  by 
only  about  five  years. 

The  framework  of  a  finger  consists  of  three  bones,  the  phalanges, 
which  form  hinge  joints  where  they  come  together.  The  basal,  or  proximal, 
phalangef  is  the  one  nearest  the  palm,  at  the  base  of  the  finger,  followed 

*  The  term  Dactyloscopy,  now  so  widely  used  in  European  countries,  is  formed  of 
two  Greek  words,  dactylos,  a  finger,  and  skopein,  to  examine,  and  means  literally:  an 
examination  of  the  fingers.  Constructed  in  the  same  way  we  may  have  Poroscopy  (poros, 
a  pore),  the  examination  of  the  pores,  and  Chiroscopy  (cheir,  a  hand),  the  examination 
of  the  hands;  i.  e.,  the  palms.  If  ever  needed  there  could  be  formed  the  word  Podoscopy 
(podo,  foot),  to  signify  the  study  of  the  soles. 

t  In  technical  anatomical  language  the  Greek  form  of  the  singular  is  used,  Phalanx, 
and  the  three  are  called  in  order,  beginning  with  tne  one  nearest  the  wrist,  proximal 
phalanx,  middle  phalanx,  terminal  phalanx.  In  English  the  proper  singular  form  would 
be  phalange,  and  is  used  here  (compare  syrinx,  syringe). 

185 


Personal  Identification 


in  turn,  proceeding  toward  the  tip,  by  the  middle  phalange,  and  end  or  ter- 
minal phalange.  The  French  have  a  separate  word  for  each,  and  call  them, 
in  the  same  order,  phalange,  phalangine,  phalangette*  As  this  use  is  ex- 
tremely convenient,  and  as  the  words  themselves  are  not  out  of  harmony 
with  the  English  language,  it  would  be  well  for  us  to  adopt  this  sensible 
nomenclature. 

The  thumb  has  only  basal  and  terminal  phalanges,  phalange  and 
phalangette,  omitting  the  middle  one,  the  phalangine.     The  toes  cor- 


PHALANGE, 


MlOOLC    PHAHwaC. 
?HAL.AV6fME. 

PHALA/VdC. 


JOINT. 


FIGURE  74.  Left  middle  finger,  and  the  bones  of 
the  same,  both  seen  from  the  lower,  or  palmar  aspect. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  bone  of  the  basal  phalange 
extends  down  into  the  palm,  and  that  the  base  of  the 
free  finger,  at  the  level  of  the  notches  between  the 
fingers,  comes  just  below  the  middle  of  the  bone. 

respond  exactly  to  the  fingers  in  the  number  and  arrangement  of  their 
phalanges,  two  in  the  first,  or  "great"  toe,  and  three  each  in  the  others, 
in  all  fourteen  in  an  entire  foot  or  hand. 

The  lower,  or  palmar,  surfaces  of  all  the  phalanges  are  covered  with 
friction-skin,  bearing  ridges,  but  it  is  only  upon  the  prominent  cushions 
of  the  terminal  phalanges,  the  "finger-balls,"  that  they  arrange  themselves 
into  definite  patterns.  Elsewhere  the  ridges  run  in  somewhat  irregular 
course,  with  a  tendency  to  either  slant  or  curve;  and  thus,  while  in  the 

*  Although  properly  speaking,  the  terms  phalange  (or  phalanx)  phalangine,  and 
phalangette,  were  applied  originally  to  the  bones,  it  is  convenient  to  use  them  also  for 
the  corresponding  length  of  the  fingers  when  clothed  in  flesh.  In  what  follows  they 
will  be  so  used. 


Finger  Prints;   Description  and  Classification 


187 


case  of  chance  impressions,  any  of  the  phalanges  may  prove  of  the  utmost 
importance,  it  is  to  the  finger  balls  of  the  end  phalanges  that  our  attention 
is  especially  directed.  These  are  the  "Finger  Prints"  of  ordinary  parlance, 
and  thus  far  have  occupied  the  main  attention  of  the  experts. 


FIGURE  75.     Print  of  the  left  middle  finger  of   William  B ,  rolled  the   entire 

length.  The  subject  is  a  hard-working  farmer,  and  the  ridges  are  correspondingly 
heavy  and  distinct.  The  harder  the  usage,  the  stronger  and  firmer  the  ridges.  Pat- 
tern: Ulnar  Loop  of  13  ridges.  Code  word,  UNCOVER. 

The  Types  of  Patterns.  In  1823  Purkinje  made  a  careful  study  of  the 
finger  patterns,  and  grouped  them  in  nine  groups,  or  types,  to  each  of  which 
he  affixed  a  definite  name;  the  oblique  loop,  the  spiral,  the  double  whorl, 
the  almond,  and  so  on.  Galton,  writing  in  the  80's,  made  a  much  simpler 


1SS 


Personal  Identification 


grouping  of  the  types,  and  embraced  them  all  under  three,  the  Arch,  the 
the  Loop,  and  the  Whorl.  These  he  designated  by  their  initial  letters, 
and  upon  them  he  founded  his  now  famous  ALW  classification.  This 
was  the  foundation  of  the  present  classification,  which  differs  mainly  in 
the  recognition  of  a  fourth  class,  that  of  the  Composites,  introduced  for 


COMPOSITE. 


LOOP 


ARCH 


FIGURE  76.  Diagrams  of  the  four  main  types  of 
finger  patterns.  The  whorl  and  composite  have  two 
deltas;  the  loop  one,  and  the  arch  none. 

practical  purposes  by  Sir  E.  R.  Henry,  and  intended  to  include  all  forms 
of  patterns  not  readily  included  under  either  arches,  loops,  or  whorls. 
To  this  class  would  be  referred  patterns  with  two  loops,  loops  with  pockets, 
various  sorts  of  spirals,  and  all  forms  of  eccentrics.  The  classification 
of  finger  prints  is  rendered  so  simple  by  this  means  that  with  a  little  pa- 
tience any  one  may  soon  be  able  to  distinguish  these  four  classes  at  sight. 
Two  further  points  are,  however,  to  be  noted: 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  189 

1.  There  are  two  kinds  of  loops,  Ulnar  and  Radial.     The  Ulnar  type, 
which  is  much  the  commoner,  opens  toward  the  outer,  or  ulnar  side,  of 
the  hand, —  the  side  of  the  little  finger;  the  Radial  type  opens  toward  the 
inner,  or  Radial,  side  —  the  one  toward  the  thumb.* 

2.  Aside  from  the  usual  form  of  arch,  where  the  ridges  run  in  curves 
across  the  finger,  there  is  a  modification  known  as  the  Tented  Arch,  where 
the  curve  becomes  a  sharp  one,  and  the  ridge  in  the  center,  or  core,  runs 
lengthwise  like  the  pole  of  a  narrow  A-tent,  causing  the  ridges  on  the  sides 
to  run  over  it  in  the  form  of  a  sharp  angle. 

By  using  the  following  abbreviations,  the  patterns  of  a  given  hand 
may  be  readily  expressed  in  the  form  of  a  simple  formula,  after  a  few 
minutes' examination :  A  =  Arch;  T  =  Ten  ted  Arch;  R  =  Radial  Loop; 
U  =  Ulnar  Loop;  W  =  Whorl;  C  =  Composite.  There  are  also  certain 
definite  types  of  Composites,  like  the  Central  Pocket  Loop  (C.  P.),  the 
Twin  Loop  (T.  L.),  etc.,  which  are  taken  up  below,  and  have  also  their 
own  abbreviations.  Their  use  makes  this  simple  pattern  formula  a  more 
precise  one,  but  these  need  not  be  taken  up  here. 

Using  the  above  abbreviations  the  formulae  for  a  series  of  hands,  when 
written  out,  would  appear  like  the  following: 

W  — R  — U  —  W  — U 
A  — R  — W— W  — R 
W  — T  — U  — U  — U 

In  all  such  formula?,  whether  for  the  right  or  the  left  hand,  the  abbre- 
viation for  the  thumb  is  placed  at  the  left,  followed  by  that  for  the  index, 
middle,  etc.,  in  the  natural  order.  In  a  print  of  an  entire  hand,  or  of  the 
fingers  together,  this  order  corresponds  exactly  to  the  patterns  of  the  right 
hand,  but  is  the  opposite  of  the  order  shown  in  the  left;  in  actual  hands, 
where  the  order  is  the  reverse  of  a  print,  it  is  the  left  hand  whose  fingers 
are  presented  as  written,  while  the  right  hand  is  reversed.  The  reader  will 
see  this  in  a  moment  by  holding  up  his  own  left  hand  and  comparing  it 
with  a  print.  The  hand  corresponds  to  the  order  of  the  above  formulae, 
thumb  on  the  left,  and  so  on;  the  print  reverses  it 

Explained  in  another  way,  the  order  of  fingers  on  the  actual  hands, 
held  before  one,  Palmar  side  up,  is: 

1—2—3—4—5     [     5—4—3—2—1 

*There  are  two  bones  in  the  forearm:  Ulna  and  Radius.  The  Ulna  lies  along ^the 
outside,  corresponding  to  the  little  finger  side  of  the  hand.  Its  upper  end  forms  the 
elbow,  and  the  arm  naturally  rests  on  the  ulna  when  placed  on  the  table,  in  contact  with 
it  from  elbow  to  hand.  The  Radius  is  the  inner  of  the  two,  and  comes  down  to  the 
thumb-side  of  the  hand.  The  two  sides  of  the  hand  are  thus  conveniently  termed 
ulnar  and  radial,  the  little-finger  side  and  the  thumb-side  respectively. 


190  Personal  Identification 


and  the  order  found  in  a  print,  which  naturally  reverses  the  picture,  is: 
5—4—3—2—1          1—2—3—4—5 

while  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  all  formula  writing  the  order  is  invariably 
the  most  natural  one,  1-2-3-4-5. 

If  the  two  hands  are  to  be  written  out  together  they  are  placed  in  the 
form  of  a  fraction,  with  the  right  hand  invariably  above  the  line,  in  the  place 
of  the  numerator,  and  the  left  hand  below  the  line,  in  the  place  of  the  denomi- 
nator, as  follows: 

Right  hand:        1  —  2  —  3  —  4  —  5 

Left  hand:  1  —  2  —  3  —  4-5 

This  formula,  in  a  given  case,  would  appear  thus: 

W  — R  —  U  —  W  —  U 
A  — R  —  W—  W— R 

In  practice  we  have  found  it  convenient,  in  writing  out  such  formulae, 
to  employ  an  oblique  line,/,  to  designate  Loops,  the  two  kinds,  Ulnar  and 
Radial,  being  represented  by  the  two  slopes,/ and \.  These  should  corre- 
spond to  the  slopes  as  seen  in  the  prints,  not  in  the  hands,  which  would  give 
the  following  usage: 

Right  Ulnar      \ 

Right  Radial     / 

Left  Ulnar         / 

Left  Radial       \  I 

This  shows  in  the  formula  as  a  conventionalized  picture  of  the  pattern, 
and  appears  as  follows,  using  the  same  formula  as  the  last: 

W  — /— \  — W\ 
A  — \— W  — W  \ 

In  this  example  it  will  be  noted  that  the  Loops  of  the  left  hand  are 
both  Radial,  while  the  Loops  of  the  right  middle  and  little,  although  indi- 
cated by  diagonal  lines  that  slope  the  same  way,  are  here  Ulnar  Loops. 

The  following  formulae,  written  out  in  the  more  usual  way,  are  taken 
haphazard  from  different  individuals,  as  illustrations  of  this  simple  method 
of  describing  a  man  by  his  finger  patterns,  although  in  actual  practice 
somewhat  more  complicated  methods  are  in  general  use. 

(1)  W-T  -U  -U  -U  (H.H.W.)         (2)  U  -  T  -  U  -  U  -  U     (B.  w.) 

-T-  -U  U-U-U-U-U 

(3)  C    -  W  —  U  —  U  —  U  (i.  w.  w.)  (4)  A  —  A  —  U  —  U  —  A      (E.  j.  w.) 

-U  -U    -U  A-A-U-U-A 

-  A  —  U  —  U  —  U  (R.  E.  p.)  (6)  U  —  A  —  U  —  U  —  U     (B.  B.) 

A-U-U-U-U  U_A-U-U-A 

(7)  W-W-W-W-U  (j.c.)  (8)   U-R-W-W-U     (j.  N.) 

W-W-W-W-U  W-W-R-W-U 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  191 

These  actual  cases,  taken  at  random,  do  not  show  a  great  variety  of 
patterns,  but  they  represent  what  one  has  to  deal  with  in  actual  work. 
The  first  two  are  those  of  the  two  authors  of  this  book,  the  next  two  are 
their  wives,  the  next  is  a  little  girl,  and  the  last  three  are  criminals,  with 
police  records. 

A  preliminary  study  of  a  man's  hands,  sufficient  for  writing  such  a 
formula  as  these,  may  be  made  directly  on  the  hands  themselves  by  means 
of  a  pocket  magnifier.  In  some  cases,  too,  as  when  a  suspect  is  being  held 
on  the  charge  that  he  is  a  certain  man,  whose  pattern  formula  is  known, 
such  a  cursory  examination  may  be  sufficient  to  prove  non-identity :  where, 
however,  anything  more  is  needed,  in  all  cases  requiring  careful  study  of 
individual  patterns,  some  form  of  print  or  permanent  impression  is  neces- 
sary. Prints  are  taken  as  follows: 

Taking  the  Finger  Prints.  The  manner  of  taking  finger  prints  is  in 
substance  as  follows:  A  very  thin  film  of  printer's  ink  having  been  rolled 
evenly  on  a  glass  plate,  each  finger  in  turn  is  taken  by  the  operator,  who 
stands  on  the  left  of  the  person  whose  prints  are  being  taken.  The  finger 
bulb  is  placed  upon  its  side  and  lightly  rolled  to  the  opposite  side;  then  as 
lightly  rolled  on  the  paper  form  in  the  place  designated  as  that  for  the 
impression  of  that  particular  digit.  The  practice  of  rolling  the  fingers 
when  printing  from  them  is  necessary  in  order  to  impress  enough  of  the 
surface  to  insure  that  the  points  at  which  the  boundaries  of  the  patterns 
begin  to  diverge  —  i.  e.,  the  deltas  —  shall  always  be  included. 

The  impressions  are  recorded  in  the  following  order: 

Upper  row:     Rt.  thumb;   Rt.  index;   Rt.  middle;   Rt.  ring;   Rt.  little. 
Lower  row:     Lft.  thumb;   Lft.  index;   Lft.  middle;    Lft.  ring;   Lft.  little. 

In  most  cases  plain,  or  "dab,"  impressions  (made  without  rolling) 
are  taken  also  by  placing  the  bulbs  of  the  four  fingers,  omitting  the  thumb, 
first  on  the  inked  glass  and  then  on  the  paper  simultaneously,  without  any 
rolling  or  turning  movement  whatever,  and  with  the  fingers  held  close 
together.  Figure  77  shows  the  manner  in  which  both  rolled  and  plain 
finger  prints  are  usually  recorded. 

The  main  value  of  a  set  of  plain  impressions  is  to  give  the  correct  order 
of  the  patterns,  and  check  any  error  made  in  placing  the  rolled  ones;  they 
are  also  inclined  to  be  a  trifle  clearer,  and  offer  in  general  the  advantage 
that  comes  from  the  chance  to  examine  more  than  one  print.  There  is 
an  additional  advantage,  that  of  comparing  the  plain  inked  impressions 
with  chance  impressions  found  at  the  place  where  a  crime  had  been  com- 
mitted, as,  almost  without  exception,  the  chance  impressions  will  be  in  the 
same  form,  and  if  more  than  one,  in  the  same  order  as  the  plain  impressions. 
Sometimes  the  plain  impressions  of  both  thumbs  are  also  taken.  These 
must  be  impressed  separately  from  the  fingers  in  order  to  get  the  pattern. 


192 


Personal  Identification 


To  prepare  the  glass  plate  in  the  first  place,  the  ink  should  cover  the 
surface  evenly,  and  to  the  right  depth.  A  printer's  roller  should  be  used, — 
that  is,  a  roller  made  from  glue  and  molasses, —  although,  when  nothing 
better  is  available,  fairly  good  results  may  be  obtained  from  the  cheap 
rubber  rollers  commonly  sold  with  photographic  supplies.  The  glass 


FIGURE  77.  Complete  finger  print  record  of  a  little  girl,  R.  E.  P.  The  two  upper 
rows  are  rolled  impressions.  The  two  spaces  below  contain  plain  impressions,  all  four 
of  each  hand  made  at  the  same  time. 

surface  should  be  perfectly  clean  to  begin  with,  and  a  bit  of  ink  should  be 
placed  upon  it  and  rolled  down  in  different  directions,  until  the  ink  is 
evenly  distributed.  Use  a  little  at  first,  and  then  add  more,  bit  by  bit, 
rolling  between  the  additions.  After  each  impression  all  the  lines  of  the 
previous  one  must  be  wholly  rolled  out,  as  otherwise  there  will  be  a  sur- 
charge. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification 


193 


Each  time,  when  the  work  is  finished,  the  ink  should  be  wholly  cleaned 
from  both  plate  and  roller  by  the  use  of  benzine,  or  gasoline  and  when 
not  in  use  the  roller  and  plate  should  be  kept  in  a  place  free  from  dust 
and  lint.  The  operator  should  make  it  a  point  to  obtain  the  best  prints 
possible,  for  success  depends  upon  the  clearness  of  the  inked  impressions 
and  the  accuracy  of  their  classification. 

Pattern  Areas,  Deltas  and  Cores.  All  patterns  except  Arches,  which 
are  in  reality  no  patterns  at  all,  possess  certain  elements  which  are  essential 
to  a  proper  understanding  of  these  structures.  These  are  the  pattern  area, 
the  delta  or  deltas,  and  the  core  or  cores. 

The  deltas,  as  in  the  interpretation  of  a  palm,  are  the  first  points  to 


FIGURE  78.      Cores    and    deltas    of    loops,    showing    various    methods     of    con- 
struction. 

be  looked  for.  These  points  give  the  appearance  of  triangles  or  often  of 
three-pointed  stars,  but  the  careful  study  of  the  ridges  composing  them 
shows  that  they  may  be  formed  in  a  variety  of  ways  (Figure  78).  Henry 
describes  the  usual  formation  as  made  "either  by  the  forking  of  a  single 
ridge,  or  by  the  wide  separation  of  two  ridges  that  up  to  this  point  had  run 
side  by  side";  having  in  mind  the  ridges  that  come  in  from  the  margin  of 
the  friction  skin,  and  approach  the  bulb.  Thus  it  may  appear  in  the  typi- 
cal form  of  the  three-pointed  star  (Figure  78  a),  that  is,  a  capital  Y  with 
the  two  arms  widely  spread;  again  (b,  c  and  d),  the  delta  is  the  nearest 
ridge  or  dot  in  front  of  the  divergence  of  the  two  ridges  that  until  then  had 
been  parallel.  It  is  also  possible  to  find  a  delta  without  a  definite  center, 
where  the  idea  of  the  triangle  is  expressed  by  the  proper  bending  and  fork- 
ing of  the  ridges  (e).  There  are,  however,  frequent  cases  of  such  irregular 
formations  as  e  that  may  require  some  little  thought  as  to  which  point 


1511 


Personal  Identification 


is  to  be  taken  as  the  delta.  In  general  this  point  of  delta  may  be  defined 
as  the  point  where  there  is  a  forking  of  a  single  ridge,  or  the  ridge  or  island 
in  front  of  the  angle  caused  by  the  divergence  of  the  two  ridges  mentioned. 
In  Figure  78  the  point  of  each  delta  is  the  center  of  the  circle  where  the 
ridge  forks  or  where  two  separate,  and  in  all  cases  where  the  word  delta 
is  used  the  point  of  delta  is  intended.  In  almost  every  case  there  may  be 
selected  three  ridges  radiating  from  the  point  of  delta,  the  radiants,  and 
here,  as  in  the  palms  and  soles,  these  ridges  may  be  followed  by  tracing 
them  with  ink.  Occasional  cases  may  be  met  with  where,  within  the 


FIGURE  79.     Print  from  the  right  middle 
fingerofJ.C.,2X.     Codeword,  UNEASY. 


FIGURE  80.  Same  as  Figure  79, 
with  the  pattern  area  removed,  2X. 
Compare  the  two  figures. 


general  delta  area,  there  are  two  or  more  forked  ridges  spreading  out  to 
form  radiants;  that  is,  two  or  more  deltas  or  points  of  delta  (Figure  78,  A). 
Where  a  definite  point  must  be  fixed  upon,  as  in  ridge  tracing  or  counting, 
the  point  of  the  delta  nearest  the  point  of  core  is  taken. 

The  two  inner  radiants,  those  passing  toward  the  middle  of  the  phal- 
ange, are  the  ones  to  be  followed,  and  will  be  found  to  define  with  more  or 
less  accuracy  the  region  which  includes  the  pattern,  the  pattern  area. 
Where  there  is  but  one  delta  the  boundaries  of  this  area  are  definite  ones, 
and  cut  the  pattern  out  of  its  surroundings,  so  to  speak,  as  clearly  as  could 
be  done  with  the  scissors.  Such  a  case  is  shown  in  an  Dinar  Loop  in  Fig- 
ures 79  and  80,  the  first  of  which  shows  the  entire  print,  without  tracing; 
the  second  the  pattern  area  traced  and  eliminated,  leaving  the  surrounding 
field  only.  Here  the  lower  radiant  of  the  delta  extends  nearly  horizontally 
across  the  pattern,  defining  the  lower  boundary  of  the  pattern  area,  while 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  195 

the  upper  radiant  passes  up,  over,  and  down  on  the  other  side,  thus  form- 
ing a  large  loop  in  which  the  pattern  lies.  This  upper  radiant  in  this  case 
emerges  from  the  right-hand  margin  only  a  short  distance  from  the  lower, 
leaving  a  matter  of  but  8-9  ridges  between  them  at  their  exit.  The  pattern 
is,  however,  still  freely  open  and  is  definitely  a  Loop,  and  not  a  Whorl  or 
Composite  of  some  sort,  as  it  would  be  if  any  of  the  ridges  were  recurved, 
as  a  result  of  being  penned  in.  Loops  are  sometimes  wider  than  this  at 
the  exit;  others  are  narrower,  and  it  is  even  possible  to  find  those  in  which 
the  two  radiants  fuse  at  the  exit  into  a  single  ridge  These  are  all  consid- 
ered as  Loops,  however,  so  long  as  there  is  no  recurved  ridge.  One  such 
ridge  would  form  a  delta,  which  would  transform  the  pattern  into  a  Whorl 
or  allied  form. 

The  Core,  or  center,  of  a  pattern  differs  in  the  different  types.  In  a 
perfect  Whorl,  formed  by  concentric  figures,  circles  or  ellipses,  the  core  is 
the  center  about  which  the  figures  are  arranged;  in  a  typical  Loop  it  is 
the  terminal  end  of  the  central  axis;  but  in  actual  cases,  where  its  definition 
becomes  a  matter  of  ridges,  there  are  many  variations,  and  the  exact 
location  of  the  core  becomes  occasionally  a  difficult  question. 

The  location  of  the  core  is  mainly  of  importance  in  determining  the 
ridge  count  of  a  Loop, —  that  is,  the  number  of  ridges  intervening  between 
the  point  of  core  and  point  of  delta, —  but  at  times  it  is  equally  necessary 
to  find  the  core  of  a  Whorl  or  Composite,  for  a  similar  purpose. 

Often  in  a  Loop  pattern  the  axis  of  the  Loop  is  formed  by  a  single 
straight  ridge  or  rod  which  is  unmistakable,  and  the  core  can  be  readily 
fixed  at  the  free  upper  end  of  this  ridge,  called  the  point  of  core.  Fre- 
quently, however,  the  axis  is  in  the  form  of  a  narrow  loop,  composed  of 
two  ridges,  continuous  over  the  upper  end;  or,  again,  it  is  composed  of  two, 
three,  or  more  adjacent  ridges,  ending  freely  above,  and  not  joined  together. 
In  all  such  cases  the  following  rule  is  to  be  observed:  In  the  case  of  two 
ridges,  whether  connected  or  not,  the  one  farthest  from  the  delta  forms  the  axis, 
and  its  highest  point  is  the  point  of  core;  if  there  are  three  ridges,  use  the 
middle  one,  and  if  four,  use  the  third  one,  counting  from  the  side  of  the 
delta. 

Figure  81  shows  the  centers  of  various  forms  of  Whorls;  e  is  that  of  a 
double  spiral  where  the  ridges  seem  to  approach  the  center  contra-clock- 
wise; as  compared  with  Plate  III,  e,  where  the  ridges  run  clockwise,  or  in 
the  same  direction  as  the  hands  of  a  clock.  Various  forms  of  cores  and 
deltas  in  loops  are  shown  in  Figure  78,  /,  g,  h,  i,  j.  In/  there  is  a  single  rod 
in  the  center,  the  point  of  delta  being  a  single  bifurcation;  both  point  of 
delta  and  point  of  core  are  indicated  by  circles.  In  g  there  is  a  looped  rod 
in  the  center;  in  h  there  are  three  rods,  but  with  a  compound  bifurcation 
at  the  delta;  in  i  there  are  four  rods,  with  a  parting,  the  nearest  ridge  in 
front  being  the  point  of  delta;  and  in  j  there  are  two  separate  rods,  with  a 


196 


Personal  Identification 


parting,  the  island  being  the  point  of  delta.  In  all  these  illustrations  of 
loops,  the  double  line  indicates  the  ridges  that  are  counted. 

An  Arch  has  neither  core  nor  delta,  but  a  Tented  Arch,  which  is  really 
intermediate  between  an  Arch  and  a  Loop,  possesses  both. 

A  Whorl  has  two  deltas,  one  on  either  side  of  the  finger,  and  it  is 
naturally  seldom  that  the  radiants  from  the  two  actually  coincide  across 
the  pattern.  The  upper  radiants  are  not  considered  in  this,  but  Whorls 
are  subdivided  into  different  types  in  accordance  with  the  mutual  relationships 
of  the  lower  radiants.  Where  the  two  either  coincide,  or  come  within  two 
ridges  either  way  of  doing  so,  they  are  called  Meeting  Whorls  (M) ;  when 


FIGURE  81.     Details   of   several  different  cores  from 
whorls,  showing  various  methods  of  construction. 


the  one  from  the  left  point  of  delta  (without  reference  to  the  hand  the 
pattern  came  from)  passes  below  the  right  point  of  delta  by  three  or 
more  ridges,  the  pattern  is  an  Outside  Whorl  (O);  when  the  same  line 
passes  above  by  three  ridges  the  pattern  is  an  Inside  Whorl  (I). 

Summarizing,   the  following  relations  occur  and   may   help   in   the 
determination  of  patterns: 

A  Typical  Whorl  has  two  deltas  and  one  core.  - 
A  Spiral  Whorl  has  two  deltas  and  one  or  two  cores. 
A  Composite  has  two  deltas  and  one  or  two  cores. 
A  Loop  has  one  delta  and  one  core. 
An  Arch  has  no  delta  and  no  core. 

To  this  the  Tented  Arch  is  an  exception,  as  it  is  a  transition  form 

between  an  Arch  and  a  Loop.     It  has  one  delta  and  one  core,  close  together. 

The  separate  types  of  patterns  may  now  be  taken  up  in  greater  detail. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  197 

THE    MAIN    TYPES    OF   FINGER    PATTERNS    AND    THEIR   ATTRIBUTES 

1.  Arches. 

In  Arches  the  ridges  run  from  one  side  of  the  finger  bulb  to  the  other, 
those  ridges  at  or  near  the  base  running  practically  straight  across  the 
finger,  the  ridges  above  arching  more  and  more  the  nearer  they  are  to  the 
finger  tip.  There  is  generally  no  delta,  but  when  there  is  an  appearance 
of  one,  no  ridge  must  intervene  between  this  and  the  core,  which  necessarily 
is  present  with  the  delta.  This  form  of  Arch  is  clearly  the  first  step  follow- 
ing a  Loop,  but  no  ridge  intervenes  between  delta  and  core;  in  other  words, 
if  a  ridge  count  of  1  can  be  obtained,  the  pattern  is  a  Loop  and  not  an 
Arch. 

Tented  Arches.  In  patterns  of  the  Arch  type  there  is  a  variation  or 
modification  known  as  the  Tented  Arch  (Plate  I,  £),  so  called  "on  account 
of  a  vertical  upthrust  or  spine  from  the  middle  of  the  base  of  the  Arch, 
causing  the  ridges  immediately  above  it  to  assume  a  shape  not  unlike  the 
outline  of  a  tent,  leaving  the  remainder  of  the  pattern  but  little  disturbed."* 
There  are  some  Tented  Arches  that  have  the  appearance  of  Vertical  Loops, 
if  the  term  be  allowed  (Plate  I,  c),  "but  in  order  to  demark  clearly  the  line 
which  separates  Tented  Arches  from  those  Loops  that  have  a  more  or  less 
vertical  trend,  it  is  held  that,  if  on  either  side  of  the  axis  even  one  ridge 
recurves,  the  impression  is  a  Loop.  The  meeting  of  two  ridges  at  a  sharp* 
angle  resulting  from  their  running  into  each  other,  through  not  maintaining 
their  parallelism  of  direction,  is  not  to  be  confused  with  recurving.  The 
recurving  ridge  must  be  wholly  on  one  side  of  the  axis."  While  nearly 
five  per  cent  of  all  impressions  taken  will  be  of  the  Arch  type,  only  about 
one  in  nine  of  these  will  be  a  Tented  Arch. 

2.  Loops. 

In  Loops  "some  of  the  ridges  double  back  upon  their  course  and  return 
approximately  to  the  place  where  they  started  from,  but  no  ridge  makes  a 
complete  circuit."  There  is  but  one  delta. 

As  explained  above,  Loops  slope  obliquely  downward,  opening  either 
toward  the  thumb-side  (radial)  or  toward  the  little-finger-side  (ulnar). 
In  accordance  with  this  direction  of  the  open  end,  Loops  are  classified  as 
Radial  and  Ulnar.  In  a  print,  which  is  just  the  reverse  of  the  actual  skin 
surface,  an  Ulnar  Loop  on  the  right  hand  opens  toward  the  right,  and  a 
Radial  Loop  to  the  left;  while  in  the  case  of  the  left  hand  the  reverse  is 
true,  Radial  to  the  right,  Ulnar  to  the  left.  In  the  actual  hands,  Ulnar 
Loops  of  the  right  hand  open  to  the  left,  and  Radial  to  the  right;  while 
in  left  hands  the  Ra dm  1  Loops  open  to  the  left  and  Ulnar  Loops  to  the  right. 
This  whole  matter  is  rendered  so  confusing  by  the  reversal  of  directions 
on  the  two  hands,  and  again  by  the  reversal  between  hands  and  prints 
*  Classification  and  uses  of  Finger  Prints.  Sir  E.  R.  Henry. 


198  Personal  Identification 


that,  for  the  beginning  at  least,  it  is  best  to  use  one's  own  hand  for  refer- 
ence, whenever  needed,  as  the  direction  of  the  two  forms  can  there  be 
seen  at  a  glance.  For  this  the  reader  has  only  to  remember,  Radial, 
Thumb;  Ulnar,  Little  Finger,  and  also  that  the  right  hand  corresponds 
to  a  left  print,  and  vice  versa.  This  method  causes  the  worker  to  reason 
the  whole  thing  out  anew  at  every  such  consultation,  and  grounds  him  in 
the  relationships  as  nothing  else  can.  However,  should  he  wish  to  learn 
a  rule,  applicable  to  prints  only,  he  may  be  helped  by  the  following: 

On  right  hand  prints;    Ulnar  to  right,  Radial  to  left. 
On  left  hand  prints;   Ulnar  to  left,  Radial  to  right. 

which  may  be  still  further  reduced,  as : 

Ulnar  to  its  own  side  (i.  e.,  to  right  in  right  hand  prints;  to  left  in  left  hand  prints). 

In  dealing  with  so  common  a  pattern  as  the  Ulnar  Loop  a  method  is 
naturally  to  be  sought  by  which  these  may  be  subdivided,  and  thus  dis- 
tinguished from  each  other.  This  may  be  readily  done  by  means  of  the 
ridge  count,  the  method  of  which  can  be  learned  by  inspecting  figures  d,  e 
and  /  of  Plate  I,  and  Figures  137  and  138  of  Chapter  IX.  In  this  the 
exact  points  for  core  and  delta  are  definitely  fixed  by  the  rules  given  above. 
The  two  are  then  connected  by  a  straight  line  (in  the  figures  a  double  line) 
and  those  ridges  are  counted,  and  those  only,  which  are  directly  crossed 
by  the  line.  Thus,  in  Plate  I,  e,  for  example,  the  line  happens  to  cross  a 
small  island,  hardly  wider  than  the  line,  but  this  is  correctly  included  in 
the  count,  giving  the  pattern  a  count  of  16.  In  the  same  way,  Plate  I,  / 
shows  a  ridge  count  of  6,  and  Plate  I,  d,  an  example  of  the  beginning  of 
the  series,  a  ridge  count  of  1.  This  latter  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  Radial, 
rather  than  an  Ulnar,  Loop,  but  this  makes  no  difference  in  the  ridge  count 
or  the  method  of  making  it,  and  the  fact  that  the  Loop  is  Radial  rather  than 
Ulnar,  can  be  told  only  by  knowing  which  hand  it  came  from,  in  this  case 
the  right.  In  Figure  78,  g,  there  is  a  fork  crossed  by  the  double  line, — in 
such  a  case  the  fork  is  counted  as  two  ridges. 

An  extremely  puzzling  form  of  pattern  is  shown  in  Figure  82,  which 
admits  of  two  interpretations,  even  by  experts.  This  is  plainly  a  transition 
form  between  a  Loop  and  an  Arch,  with  one  ridge  already  doubled  over 
in  the  loop  form.  Were  it  not  for  the  short  projection  from  the  loop,  the 
left-hand  ridge  of  the  loop  would  be  selected  as  the  core,  and  the  pattern 
would  be  classed  as  a  Radial  Loop  with  a  ridge  count  of  1,  similar  to 
Plate  I,  d;  but  with  this  projection  there  is  formed  on  the  loop  itself  a 
figure  like  a  delta,  and,  if  we  follow  the  rule  for  double  deltas,  selecting  this 
as  the  delta  to  count  from,  there  would  be  no  intervening  ridge  between 
that  and  the  core.  According  to  this  interpretation  the  figure  would  be 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification 


199 


an  Arch.  While  there  seems  to  be  some  support  for  this  view,  the  authors 
incline  to  recognize  the  pattern  as  a  loop,  that  has  degenerated  almost  to 
the  point  of  being  an  Arch. 

A  strict  adherence  to  the  rules  for  locating  core  and  delta,  and  the 
rule  that,  if  even  one  ridge  intervenes,  the  pattern  is  a  Loop,  will  usually 
be  sufficient  to  decide  in  difficult  cases ;  but  here,  as  elsewhere,  in  transition 
and  other  doubtful  cases,  the  alternate  possibility  may  be  expressed  by 


FIGURE  82.  The  central  part  of  a  disputed  pat- 
tern, enlarged  8  diameters.  If  the  short  branch 
projecting  from  the  innermost  loop  makes,  with  the 
loop,  a  delta,  then  the  pattern  is  an  Arch,  approximat- 
ing a  Radial  loop;  code  word,  ABLE.  If  the  fork  on 
the  next  ridge  to  the  right  is  the  delta,  then  the 
pattern  is  a  loop,  approximating  an  Arch,  with  a  ridge 
count  of  1;  code  word,  RIB. 

an  exponent  letter,  and  the  search  may  be  made  in  the  files  in  both  places. 

Certain  cases  of  Ulnar  Loops  form  the  subject  of  a  careful  analysis 
in  Chapter  IX,  and  the  ridge  count  is  clearly  shown  in  both  photographs 
and  diagrams.  In  Loops  a  ridge  count  as  high  as  38  has  been  observed, 
although  the  average  falls  at  about  10,  varying  in  the  different  fingers. 
A  method  of  using  this  average,  in  dividing  Loops  into  two  approximately 
equal  groups,  is  explained  under  Classification,  farther  on  in  this  chapter. 

Aside  from  the  usual  form  of  Loops,  where  the  ridges  simply  recurve 


200 


Personal  Identification 


PLATE  I 


word,  ARCH 


b.     Code  word,  ARBOR 

Yff&. 

»,~ 

FA 


c.     Code  word,  ARMOR 


d.     Code  word,  RIB 


e.     Code  word,  UNDERGO  /.     Code  word,  UNCAP 

Description  of  Plate  I  on  Page  201 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  201 

around  the  end  of  a  central  axis,  there  are  variations  known  as  the  Invaded 
Loop  and  Crested  Loop,  first  illustrated  by  Galton  in  his  "Finger  Prints." 
Examples  of  these  are  shown  in  Plate  II,  a  and  b.  These,  the  first  in 
particular,  present  an  appearance  as  though  a  series  of  ridges  were  swarming 
over  the  pattern,  coming  from  the  side  of  the  delta,  and  threatening  to 
engulf  it  from  above.  Attaining  the  other  side  they  are  suddenly  arrested 
by  ridges  going  the  other  way,  and  forming  the  axis  of  the  Loop,  or  a  part 
of  it,  and  either  end  blindly,  or  are  swept  into  the  current  of  the  normal 
ridges,  giving  the  appearance  of  a  crest  above  the  pattern  area.  In  the 
example  shown  at  a  the  invading  ridges  are  few  in  number,  and  narrow  to 
a  point  as  they  advance.  This  pattern  doubtless  is  an  evolutionary  form 
of  a  Twin-Loop  that  has  degenerated,  while  in  b  the  invading  ridges,  about 
as  numerous,  are  all  stopped  along  a  line  which  they  cannot  pass  This 
latter  is  doubtless  a  degenerated  form  of  a  Lateral  Pocket.  The  outlet 
for  the  ridges  is  narrowed  almost  to  the  point  of  closure. 

There  is  an  extreme  type  of  Loop  where  this  shutting  off  actually  takes 
place,  and  a  round  or  oval  pocket  is  formed  about  the  core  (Plate  II,  c,  d,  e). 
Patterns  of  these  and  similar  forms,  called  Loops  that  approximate  Central 
Pockets,  are  degenerated  Whorls  beyond  a  doubt  (compare  with  Plate  II, 
f,  and  Plate  IV,  a,  b,  c),  but  these  approximations  may  always  be  distin- 
guished by  the  presence  or  absence  of  recurved  ridges;  in  other  words,  a 
delta,  at  the  base  of  the  pocket.  If  there  is  as  much  as  a  single  recurved 
ridge,  the  pattern  is  classed  as  a  Composite;  if  no  ridges  recurve,  no  matter 
how  tightly  they  are  drawn  together,  the  pattern  is  a  Loop,  and  is  classed 
with  Loops.  Like  ordinary  Loops,  both  the  Invaded  variety  and  these  ap- 
proximations can  be  either  Ulnar  or  Radial. 

Radial  Loops  are  rather  infrequent,  while  Ulnar  Loops  are  by  far 
the  most  common  of  all  finger  patterns.  According  to  a  record  compiled 
in  Scotland  Yard  in  1905,  which  enumerates  the  patterns  of  5,000'different 
persons,  (50,000  different  finger  prints,)  31,852  of  them,  or  nearly  64  per 
cent  of  the  whole,  were  Ulnar  Loops.  The  Radial  Loops  numbered  only 
2,833,  about  5£  per  cent. 
3.  Whorls. 

According  to  Henry's  definition  Whorls  are  patterns  in  which  "some 
of  the  ridges  make  a  turn  through  at  least  one  complete  circuit;   there  are 
DESCRIPTION  OF  PLATE  I 

a.  Arch,  a  pattern  with  neither  core  nor  delta,  and  not  approximating  a    loop   of 
either  sort,  Radial  or  Ulnar.     Code  word,  ARCH. 

b.  Tented  Arch,  a  symmetrical  specimen  with  no  approach  to  either  sort  of  loops. 
Code  word,  ARBOR. 

c.  Tented  Arch,  approximating  an  Ulnar  Loop.     Code  word,  ARMOR. 

d.  Radial  Loop,  approximating  an  Arch,  with  a  ridge  count  of  1.     Code  word,  RIB. 

e.  Typical  Ulnar  Loop,  with  a  ridge  count  of  16.     Code  word,  UNDERGO. 
/.     Typical  Ulnar  Loop,  with  a  ridge  count  of  6.     Code  word,  UNCAP. 


202 


Personal  Identification 


PLATE  II 


c.     Code  word,  UPREAR 


6.     Code  word,  USURER 


e.     Code  word,  UPRIGHT  /.     Code  word,  CLAW 

Description  of  Plate  II  on  Page  203. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  203 

two  deltas,  one  to  the  left,  the  other  to  the  right."  These  two  deltas 
placed  on  the  two  sides  of  the  pattern,  are  anatomically  Ulnar  and  Radial, 
in  position,  the  one  being  on  the  little-finger-side,  the  other  on  the  thumb- 
side,  of  the  pattern.  Naturally,  then,  the  sides  are  reversed  on  the*  two 
hands,  so  that,  for  instance,  the  ulnar  delta  is  on  the  right  side  of  the 
Whorl  in  a  print  from  the  right  hand,  and  on  the  left  side  of  the  Whorl  in 
a  print  taken  from  the  left  hand.  Again,  as  a  print  reverses  the  sides  of 
a  pattern  when  compared  with  the  surface  of  the  real  finger,  a  given  delta 
will  be  on  the  right  side  of  a  finger  but  on  the  left  side  of  the  print  of  that 
finger.  The  condition  is  exactly  that  of  Ulnar  and  Radial  Loops,  and  if 
once  thoroughly  reasoned  out  for  one,  it  is  solved  for  the  other.  It  would, 
therefore,  be  more  scientific  always  to  refer  to  the  two  deltas  of  a  Whorl 
as  the  Ulnar  delta,  and  the  Radial  delta,  yet  in  practical  work,  according 
to  the  Henry  system,  this  has  not  been  done.  A  Whorl  is  often  a  nearly 
symmetrical  pattern,  without  the  noticeable  difference  between  the  sides 
that  appears  in  a  Loop,  and  thus,  for  the  sake  of  simplicity,  all  Whorls  are 
treated  alike,  without  reference  to  the  hand  from  which  they  came.  The  two 
deltas  are  always  the  right  and  the  left,  as  they  are  in  the  print. 

Whorls  are  divided  into  three  groups,  which  on  the  average  are  found 
to  occur  with  about  equal  frequency,  and  thus  divide  a  collection  of  Whorl 
patterns  into  practically  equal  groups.  These,  with  their  abbreviations, 
are: 

Inside  Whorls      I 

Meeting  Whorls M 

Outside  Whorls O 

The  class  to  which  a  given  Whorl  belongs  is  found  by  tracing  the  lower 
radiant  from  the  left  point  of  delta  across  the  lower  part  of  the  pattern 
to  the  opposite  side.  When  this  is  done,  if  the  ridge  from  the  left  point 
of  delta,  which  is  the  one  upon  which  the  decision  rests,  runs  directly  into 
the  right  point  of  delta,  or  if  it  passes  the  right  delta,  either  above  or  below 
it,  by  not  more  than  two  ridges,  the  two  lines  are  considered  as  meeting, 
and  the  Whorl  is  a  Meeting  Whorl.  When  the  line  traced  from  the  left 
point  of  delta  falls  below  the  right  point  of  delta  by  more  than  two  ridges, 
the  pattern  is  an  Outside  Whorl;  and  when,  finally,  the  line  passes  above 
DESCRIPTION  OF  PLATE  II 

a.  Invaded  Ulnar  Loop,  with  a  ridge  count  of  16.     Code  word,  USURE. 

b.  Invaded  Ulnar  Loop,  with  a  ridge  count  of  17.     Code  word,  USURER. 

c.  Invaded    Ulnar    Loop,    approximating   a    Central    Pocket.      Ridge   count    14. 
Code  word,  UPREAR. 

d.  Invaded   Ulnar  Loop,  approximating  a  Central  Pocket.  Ridge  count  6.  Code 
word,  UPLED. 

e.  Invaded    Ulnar    Loop,    approximating   a    Central    Pocket.      Ridge   count    15. 
Code  word  UPRIGHT. 

/.      Central  Pocket  Loop,  approximating  an  Ulnar  Loop.      Inside  tracing,  ridge 
count  15.     Code  word,  CLAW. 


204  Personal  Identification 


the  right  point  delta,  also  by  more  than  two  ridges,  the  pattern  is  an 
Inside  Whorl.  The  line  traced  from  the  left  delta,  its  lower  radiant,  is 
always  considered  to  be  the  one  upon  which  the  decision  rests,  and  a  Whorl 
is  considered  to  be  either  Inside,  Meeting,  or  Outside,  in  accordance  with 
the  fate  of  this  line.  In  an  Inside  Whorl  the  line  from  the  left  delta  be- 
comes shut  within  the  pattern  area,  and  is  more  or  less  involved,  or  wound 
up  in  the  pattern  itself. 

Examples  of  these  three  forms  of  Whorl  patterns  are  shown  here  on 
Plate  I'll:  a  and  b  are  Inside  Whorls;  c  and  d,  Meeting  Whorls;  e  and/  are 
Outside  Whorls.  Figure  b  of  Plate  III,  and  Figures  e  and  /  of  Plate  IV^ 
represent  imperfect  prints  of  Whorl  patterns,  where,  nevertheless,  the 
group  may  be  ascertained.  In  Plate  III,  b,  the  left  radiant  becomes  in- 
volved in  the  pattern,  and  leaves  no  possibility  for  a  line  from  the  right 
side,  beyond  the  area,  to  come  above  it.  Aside  from  this  three  ridges  are 
seen  to  the  right  of  it,  neither  of  which  can  become  involved  in  the  formation 
of  the  right  delta,  and  thus  the  pattern  cannot  be  a  Meeting  Whorl.  It 
is  definitely  an  Inside  Whorl,  then,  but  the  exact  ridge  count  cannot  be 
ascertained. 

The  patterns  showrn  in  Plate  IV,  e  and  /,  are  also  incomplete  Whorl 
patterns,  but  here,  in  both  cases,  it  is  the  tracing  from  the  right  delta  that 
surrounds  the  pattern  and  shuts  out  the  possibility  of  receiving  the  line 
from  the  left  within,  or  above,  it.  They  are  thus  both  Outside  Whorls, 
and  this  decision  is  corroborated  by  a  glance  at  Plate  III,  where,  in  Figures 
e  and/,  the  same  patterns  are  shown,  more  completely  printed. 

This  comparison  emphasizes  well  the  need  of  always  procuring  rolled 
patterns,  for  while  the  group  to  which  a  Whorl  belongs  may  sometimes 
be  determined  from  the  presence  of  a  single  delta,  the  ridge  count, 
to  be  taken  up  later,  which  is  often  of  great  importance,  cannot  be  made. 

In  prints  of  Whorls  in  which  the  pattern  is  complete,  with  both  deltas, 
and  in  such  only,  the  ridge  count  may  be  taken,  and  by  it  the  patterns 
may  be  conveniently  subdivided;  but  here  the  customary  count  is  not 
that  between  either  delta  and  the  core,  but  between  the  right  point  of  delta 
and  the  line  traced  from  the  one  on  the  left.  The  cross  line,  upon  which  the 
count  is  taken,  should  be  drawn  perpendicular  to  the  ridges  to  be  counted, 
or  as  nearly  so  as  the  print  permits.  Thus,  Figure  e  of  Plate  III  is  an 

DESCRIPTION  OF  PLATE  III 

a.     Inside  Spiral  Whorl,  3  intervening  ridges.     Code  word,  WABBLE. 
6.     Inside  Whorl,  intervening  ridges  three  or  more,  but  cannot  be  counted   owing 
to  the  absence  of  right  delta.     Code  word,  WARP. 

c.  Meeting  Whorl,  no  intervening  ridges,  many  would  class  this  as  an   elongated 
whorl,  with  code  word  WRAITH.     Code  wcrd,  WEAK. 

d.  Meeting  Whorl,   1  intervening  ridge  inside.     Code  word,  WEB. 

e.  Outside  Whorl,  8  intervening  ridges.     Code  word,  WHEEL. 
/.     Outside  Whorl,  5  intervening  ridges.     Code  word,  WHARF. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification 


205 


b.     Code  word,  WARP         (i) 


c.     Code  word,  WEAK         (M) 


d.     Code  word,  WEB         (M) 


e.     Code  wcrd,  WHEEL         (o)  /.     Code  word,  WHARF         (o) 

Description  of  Plate  III  on  Page  204. 


Personal  Identification 


Outside  Whorl  with  a  ridge  count  of  8;  and/ of  the  same  plate  is  Outside 
with  a  ridge  count  of  5.  Since  ridge  counts  of  1  and  2,  both  inside  and 
outside,  are  classed  with  Meeting  Whorls,  the  count  for  the  I  and  O  groups 
begins  at  3,  with  nothing  below. 

In  tracing  the  lines  from  the  deltas,  the  following  rules  should  be 
employed : 

Start  at  the  left  point  of  delta,  tracing  toward  the  right  point  of  delta.  When  the 
ridge  ends,  drop  to  the  one  underneath,  or,  when  the  ridge  bifurcates,  follow  the  lower 
member  of  the  bifurcation,  (c);  then 

If  the  ridge  traced  passes  inside  the  right  point  of 
delta,  with  three  (3)  or  more  ridges  intervening, 
the  pattern  is  classed  as  an  Inside  Whorl.  Classi- 
fication Symbol  I. 

If  the  ridge  traced  passes  inside  the  right  point 
of  delta,  with  not  more  than  two  (2)  ridges  inter- 
vening (a); 

or,  actually  meets  the  right  point  of  delta  (6); 

or,  passes  outside  the  right  point  of  delta,  with  not 
more  than  two  (2)  ridges  intervening  (c),  the  pattern 
is  classed  as  a  Meeting  Whorl.  Classification 
Symbol  M. 

If  the  ridge  traced  passes  outside  the  right 
point  of  delta,  with  three  (3)  or  more  ridges  in- 
tervening, the  pattern  is  classed  as  an  Outside 

Whorl.     Classification   Symbol   O. 
FIGURE  82$. 

Some  authors  make  a  distinction  between  the  usual  type  of  Whorl, 
the  pattern  area  of  which  is  more  or  less  circular  in  outline,  and  the  Elon- 
gated Whorl  drawn  out  in  the  up-and-down  direction  (Plate  IV,  d),  so  that 
the  pattern  area,  and  the  ridges  parallel  with  it,  are  in  the  form  of  a  some- 
what elongated  oval.  This  distinction  may  be  made  wherever  necessary, 

DESCRIPTION  OF  PLATE  IV 

a.  Central    Pocket,   outside  tracing,    with    11    intervening    ridges.      Code    word, 
CHAR. 

b.  Typical    Central    Pocket,    with    inside    tracing,    with    11    intervening    ridges. 
Code  word,  CALICO. 

c.  Central  Pocket,  approximating  an  Ulnar  Loop.     Inside  tracing,  with  7    inter- 
vening ridges.     Code  word,  CLAN. 

d.  Elongated  Whorl,  outside  tracing  by  three  ridges.     Code  word,  WRAP. 

e.  Incomplete  print  of  Whorl,  with  left  delta  missing.     Seen  to  be    an  Outside 
Whorl,  but  with  number  of  ridges  unknown.     Print  from  the  same  finger  shown    in 
Plate  III,  c.     Code  word,  WHEEL. 

/.  Incomplete  print  of  whorl,  with  left  delta  missing.  Seen  to  be  an  Outside 
Whorl,  but  with  number  of  ridges  unknown.  Print  taken  from  the  same  finger  as 
Plate  III,  d.  Code  word,  WHARF. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification 


207 


PLATE  IV 


c.     Code  word,  CLAN         (i) 


d.     Code  word,  WRAP         (o) 

c^ 


Code  word,  WHEEL       (o)  /.     Code  word,  WHARF         (o) 

Description  of  Plate  IV  on  Page  206. 


Personal  Identification 


either  by  separating  the  Elongated  type  from  the  rest,  or  by  indicating 
them  by  exponent  letters  when  writing  out  the  formula;  but  it  is  difficult 
to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  the  two,  as  every  intermediate  form  exists 
between  circles,  ovals,  and  ellipses.  Still,  when  a  Whorl  pattern  is 
markedly  elongated,  it  appears  strikingly  unlike  the  ordinary  Whorl,  and 
this  difference  led  Purkinje,  the  first  writer  who  attempted  to  classify 
patterns,  to  form  for  it  his  class  of  Amygdala?,  or  Almonds. 

4.     Composites. 

Aside  from  the  typical  Arches,  Loops,  and  Whorls,  with  their  varieties  > 
the  Tented  Arch,  Invaded  Loop,  and  Elongated  Whorl,  there  occur  certain 
definite  types  of  patterns,  which  at  the  beginning  are  apt  to  cause  trouble. 
Anatomically  they  are  related  to  the  foregoing,  and  may  be  derived  from 
them  through  transition  forms,  as  was  shown  in  the  case  of  Invaded 
Loops  and  Central  Pocket  Loops,  but  for  purposes  of  classification 
they  can  be  treated  as  distinct,  and  placed,  with  all  their  differences, 
into  a  fourth  main  class,  called  collectively  Composites.  This  class, 
co-ordinate  in  rank  with  Arches,  Loops,  and  Whorls,  modifies  the 
original  A.  L.  W.  system  of  Galton  into  the  A.  L.  W.  C.  system  of  Henry, 
and  thus  clears  the  atmosphere  for  the  practical  worker,  who,  instead  of 
laboring  separately  with  each  case  of  these  doubtful  types,  trying  to  decide 
whether  a  given  form  is  a  modified  Loop  or  Whorl,  simply  refers  it  first 
to  the  class  of  Composites,  and  then  to  that  form  of  Composite  to  which  it 
plainly  belongs. 

The  types  of  patterns  classed  as  Composites  are  the  following: 

(a)  Central  Pocket  Loops. 

(b)  Lateral  Pocket  Loops. 

(c)  Twin  Loops.- 

(d)  Accidentals. 

They  will  be  considered  in  order. 

4a.  Central  Pocket  Loops.  These  are  anatomically  degenerated 
Whorls,  in  which  one  of  the  deltas  has  migrated  to  a  point  near  the  core, 
which  cuts  open  the  originally  circular  ridges  behind  it,  and  preserves 
those  in  front  of  it,  the  latter  forming  a  pocket  (Plate  IV,  a).  The  effect 
is  therefore  that  of  a  Loop,  which  may  be  either  Ulnar  or  Radial,  about  the 
core  of  which  there  has  been  imprisoned  a  little  Whorl.  This  latter  is 
the  "Central  Pocket,"  The  same  type  is  seen,  with  slight  variation,  in 
Figures  b  and  c  of  the  same  plate,  in  both  of  which  the  central  Whorl  has 
assumed  the  form  of  a  spiral  rather  than  the  more  primitive  one  of  concen- 
tric circles.  Still  another  Central  Pocket  Loop  is  shown  in  Plate  II,  /, 
where  it  is  used  for  comparison  with  the  anatomically  closely  related  figure, 
though  classified  elsewhere,  a  Loop  approximating  a  Central  Pocket.  The 


Finger  Prints;   Description  and  Classification  209 

distinction  between  them,  as  set  forth  above,  is  the  presence  or  absence 
of  an  inner  delta,  as  indicated  by  the  presence  or  absence  of  a  recurved 
ridge. 

The  fact  that,  in  the  pattern  here  considered,  the  ridges  embraced 
within  the  inner  delta  are  of  the  Whorl  type,  while  all  the  ridges  outside 
of  this  help  to  form  a  Loop,  causes  the  pattern  to  be  considered  both  a 
Loop  and  a  Whorl;  that  is,  a  Composite.  Seymour  says  of  it:  "This 
pattern  starts  out  to  be  a  Loop,  and  changes  its  mind  and  becomes  a  Whorl. 
The  space  in  the  center,  occupied  by  the  insurgent  ridges,  so  to  speak, 
forms  a  pocket,  within  which  are  the  ridges  that  deviate  from  the  Loop 
pattern." 

As  in  typical  Whorls,  there  can  be  Inside,  Meeting,  and  Outside 
Central  Pocket  Loops,  and  the  ridges  may  be  counted  in  the  same  way. 
Plate  IV,  a,  is  an  Outside  Central  Pocket,  with  a  count  of  11  ridges; 
Plate  IV,  b,  an  Inside  Central  Pocket,  with  a  count  also  of  11  ridges, 
and  Plate  IV,  c,  an  Inside  Central  Pocket,  with  a  count  of  7. 

4&,  Lateral  Pocket  Loops.     Both  of  these    similar  forms    are    com- 

4c,  Twin  Loops.  plicated  patterns  composed  of  two  loops, 

interrelated  like  the  two  parts  of  a  letter  "S."  They  may  be  considered 
Whorls,  which  have  been  drawn  out  sideways,  with  the  two  deltas  wide 
apart.  They  thus  seem  to  require  considerable  room  for  their  full 
expression,  and  correspondingly  the  two  together  occur  more  frequently 
on  thumbs  than  on  all  the  other  fingers  together,  and  next  to  this  on  the 
index.  On  the  last  three  fingers  they  are  rarely  found. 

In  both  types  each  of  the  loops  has  a  definite  core,  with  its  own  central 
axis,  and  if  these  are  traced,  as  can  be  easily  done,  the  results  will  appear  as 
shown  in  Plate  V,  b,  c,  d,  and  e.  In  b  and  d,  the  two  cores,  when  completely 
traced,  are  seen  to  enter  the  pattern  from  the  same  side,  in  this  case  the  right; 
while  in  c  and  e,  when  the  cores  are  traced  in  the  same  way,  the  two  axes 
enter  from  opposite  sides.  This,  then,  makes  the  most  important  distinction, 
but  another  may  be  found  in  the  position  of  the  right-hand  delta.  In  Twin 
Loops  this  delta  ordinarly  lies  somewhere  between  the  two  axial  lines,  while 
in  Lateral  Pocket  Loops  it  lies  above  both  (b),  or  below  both  (d),  and  never 
between  the  two. 

Putting  these  distinctions  in  tabular  form,  we  have: 

I.  In  Lateral  Pocket  Loops  the  two  lines  forming  the  axes  of  the 
loops  enter  from  the  same  side. 

In  Twin  Loops  the  two  lines  forming  the  axes  of  the  loops  enter  from 
opposite  sides. 

II.  In  Lateral  Pocket  Loops  the  right  delta  is  placed  either  above 
both  axial  lines,  or  below  both;    never  between  them.     In  Twin  Loops 
the  right  delta  is  usually  situated  somewhere  between  the  two  axial  lines. 
5.      Accidentals.     This  group  contains  that  relatively  small  number  of 


210 


Personal  Identification 


PLATE  V 


a.     Code  word,  ALCOVE         (i) 


c.     Code  word,  TWIN 


e.     Code  word,  TRACK         (o) 


d.     Code  word,  LADY         (i) 

a.  An  Accidental,  with  inside  trac- 
ing,   10  intervening  ridges.     Code  word, 
ALCOVE. 

b.  Lateral    Pocket    Loop,    outside 
tracing,  with  a  count  of  13  ridges.       This 
illustrates  the  necessity  of  rolling  enough 
to    include    all    the    boundaries    of    the 
pattern  area.     Code  word,  LIME. 

c.  Twin  Loop,  the  cores  enter  from 
opposite  sides.    Neither  counting  or  tracing 
can  be  determined.     Code  word,  TWIN. 

d.  Lateral     Pocket     Loop,     inside 
tracing,  with  a  count  of  11  ridges.     Code 
word,  LADY. 

e.  -Twin  Loop,  outside  tracing,  with 
a  count  of  4  ridges.   Code  word,  TRACK. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification 


211 


patterns  that  are  too  irregular  in  form  to  be  definitely  classed  in  any  of  the 
above  groups.  It  consists  thus  of  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  patterns, 
unlike  any  of  the  regular  types,  and  often  unlike  one  another,  which  are 
called  Accidentals  for  want  of  a  better  name.  These  patterns  are  quite 
infrequent,  occurring  but  64  times  in  50,000  fingers.  Curiously  enough, 
too,  52  out  of  the  64  came  from  the  index,  thus  marking  Accidentals  of  all 
sorts  as  essentially  index  patterns. 

In  some  Accidentals  there  can  be  a  ridge  count,  and  they  can  be  some- 
times determined  as  Inside,  Meeting,  or  Outside  Accidentals,  in  the  usual 


-       <       /*"/  *2* 

f 


FIGURE  83.  An  unusual  pattern  with  three 
loops.  Such  forms  are  rarely  seen  in  the  fingers, 
but  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  toes.  It  could 
be  classed  as  an  accidental.  The  pattern  has 
three  deltas,  the  center  one  only  can  be  seen 
here.  The  tracing  is  undoubtedly  inside,  and 
the  Code  word  would  be  ALWAYS. 

manner;  in  others,  however,  the  eccentricity  is  too  great  to  allow  such 
application.  Figure  a  of  Plate  V  is  plainly  an  Inside  Accidental,  with  a 
count  of  10  ridges;  but  c  of  the  same  plate  is  more  of  a  puzzle,  with  one 
definite  delta  below  and  indications  of  an  injured  second  one  directly 
above  it.  By  the  application  of  the  rule,  that  the  two  lines  that  form  the 
axes  of  the  loops  enter  opposite  sides  in  the  case  of  Twin  Loops,  this  can 
be  classified  as  a  Twin  Loop,  although  strictly  speaking  there  is  no  separa- 
tion of  the  two  cores  by  the  right  delta.  This  pattern  has  also  been  classi- 
fied by  experts  as  a  Tented  Arch,  on  the  ground  that  it  "has  but  one  delta 
and  a  spike,"  still  another  classifies  this  as  "an  Accidental  —  but  a  safe 
classification  would  be  a  plain  Loop  with  a  count  of  3."  This  illustration 


212 


Personal  Identification 


serves  to  impress  upon  us  the  necessity  of  making  a  search  under  more 
than  one  head,  in  the  case  of  obscure  patterns  that  cannot  of  a  certainty 
be  classified  as  any  particular  pattern. 

Figure  83  is  a  rare  type  of  Accidental  with  three  loops.  This  type 
seldom  occurs  on  fingers,  but  is  frequently  seen  on  toes. 

When  the  finger  print  system  of  identification  was  first  installed,  the 
world  was  much  in  the  dark  concerning  the  actual  occurrence  of  the  various 
types,  as  the  data  at  hand  were  too  few  to  yield  definite  results.  It  was 
apparent  from  the  beginning,  however,  that  the  thumb  and  index  finger 
were  more  variable  than  the  rest;  that  the  Ulnar  Loop  was  by  far  the 
commonest  type;  that  this  was  met  with  most  frequently  in  the  last  three 
fingers,  and  so  on;  but  these  supposed  facts  came  from  short  experience, 
and  were  not  substantiated  by  definite  data.  In  1905  Scotland  Yard  was 
able  to  present  the  statistics  of  the  patterns  of  5,000  individuals,  yielding 
50,000  impressions,  which  seems  a  sufficient  number  upon  which  to  base 
fairly  accurate  percentages  of  occurrence.  These  were  taken  separately 
for  each  of  the  five  fingers  of  each  hand,  and  are  presented  here: 

TABLE  SHOWING  THE  OCCURRENCE  OF  EACH  TYPE  OF  PATTERN  ON 
EACH  OF  THE  TEN  FINGERS  OF  5,000  INDIVIDUALS  (50,000  IMPRESSIONS). 


Digit 

Whorb 

Lat.  P. 
TwinL. 

Central 
Pockets 

Acci- 
dental 

Ulnar 

Radial 

Tented 
Arch 

Arch 

Amput.or 
Damaged 

Right  Thumb 

1588 

438 

37 

2 

2786 

11 

1 

122 

15 

Right  Index 

1241 

146 

119 

21 

1602 

1291 

114 

425 

41 

Right  Middle 

695 

69 

57 

2 

3719 

126 

30 

273 

29 

Right  Ring 

1735 

32 

274 

4 

2769 

73 

1 

91 

21 

Right  Little 

568 

19 

100 

Nil 

4254 

10 

Nil 

27 

22 

Left  Thumb 

957 

491 

18 

Nil 

3287 

10 

Nil 

225 

12 

Left  Index 

1094 

174 

100 

31 

1893 

1161 

97 

418 

32 

Left  Middle 

657 

105 

40 

3 

3647 

125 

43 

354 

26 

Left  Ring 

1100 

53 

231 

Nil 

3429 

25 

4 

133 

25 

Left  Little 

341 

31 

76 

1 

4466 

1 

1 

57 

26 

Totals 

9976 

1558 

1052 

64 

31852 

2833 

291 

2125 

249 

On  page  79  of  "Classification  and  Uses  of  Finger  Prints,"  by  Sir 
E.  R.  Henry,  the  percentage  of  the  different  types  of  patterns  is  given  as, 
"Arches,  5  per  cent;  Loops,  60  per  cent;  Whorls  and  Composites,  35 
per  cent."  It  will  be  noticed  that  in  the  above  table  the  percentage  of 
Loops  is  larger,  and  that  of  Whorls  smaller,  than  given  by  Henry.  Ex- 
perience has  shown,  however,  that  the  percentage  given  by  Henry  is 
nearer  the  average  the  world  over. 

THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF  FINGER  PRINT  RECORDS 
Although  individual  finger  patterns  thus  admit  of  careful  description, 
and  of  classification  into  types  and  varieties,  the  system  would  not  be  very 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  213 

< 


serviceable  when  dealing  with  thousands  of  individuals  unless  the  records, 
in  practically  any  number,  could  be  so  arranged  in  order  and  filed  by  some 
competent  methods,  which  would  enable  one  to  find  quickly  and  easily 
an  individual  record.  The  importance  of  classification  was  well  expressed 
by  the  late  executive  secretacy  of  the  New  York  Police  Department, 
Robert  J.  Kennedy:  "Finger  Prints,  to  be  of  any  value,  must  be  classified 
in  such  a  way  that  a  record  of  any  person  may  be  quickly  found  at  any  time, 
regard  ess  of  name,  photograph,  or  physical  description."  Accordingly, 
a  large  part  of  the  labors  of  the  founders  of  the  finger-print  system  has  been 
devoted  to  formulating  and  systematizing  records  with  this  end  in  view. 

The  system  of  classification  now  in  general  use  is  based  upon  entire 
sets  of  prints  rather  than  the  prints  of  single  fingers,  although  even  this 
latter  has  been  perfected  and  put  into  actual  use  by  Oloriz  in  Madrid,  and 
is  destined  to  become  of  general  use.  There  is  first  a  Primary  Classifica- 
tion, by  which  the  poss  ble  formulae  are  divided  into  1,024  separate  groups 
or  classes;  and  there  are  then  several  practical  methods  of  Secondary 
Classification,  by  which  each  of  these  classes  may  be  further  subdivided 
to  the  extent  desired. 

A.     The  Primary  Classification  of  Sir  E.  R.  Henry 
This  method,  now  in  general  use  and  hence  known  to  all  finger-print 
experts,  is  best  described  in  the  words  of  the  one  who  devised  it,  as  found 
in  his  manual  of  the  finger-print  system.     It  is  described  as  follows: 

"The  rolled  impressions  of  the  digits  are  recorded  in  their  natural 
order  of  thumb,  index,  middle,  ring,  and  little  finger  —  those  of  the  right 
hand  being  in  line  above,  immediately  below  them  the  impressions  of  the 
corresponding  digits  of  the  left  hand.  At  the  bottom  of  the  slip  the  plain 
impressions  of  the  index,  middle,  ring  and  little  fingers  of  both  hands  are 
also  taken.  It  is  essential  to  correct  classification  that  the  digits  should 
be  printed  in  their  proper  sequence;  and  as  it  could  happen,  through  in- 
advertence on  the  part  of  the  operator,  that  the  impression,  say,  of  the 
right  index  might  appear  as  that  of  the  middle  or  ring  finger,  the  following 
check  is  provided.  After  the  rolled  impressions  have  been  taken,  the  index, 
middle,  ring  and  little  fingers  of  each  hand  are  dabbed  down  on  the  paper 
so  that  the  imprints  of  their  first  phalanges  are  simultaneously  made,  and 
they  must  of  necessity  appear  in  their  proper  sequence.  When  slips  are 
being  classified  their  plain  prints  are  invariably  compared  with  the  rolled 
impressions.  This  check,  simple  as  it  may  appear,  proves  completely 
effective." 

"We  have  the  same  number  of  combinations  for  the  second  pair,  and, 
as  each  of  these  can  be  combined  with  each  arrangement  of  the  thumb  and 
index,  the  total  combinations  of  the  two  pairs  taken  together  is  16.  The 
third  pair  has  similarly  four  arrangements,  which,  taken  with  those  of  the 


214  Personal  Identification 


. 
preceding  two  pairs,  raises  the  number  of  combinations  to  64;  adding  the 

fourth  pair  this  number  rises  to  256,  and  with  the  fifth  pair  to  1,024.  The 
number  1,024  is  the  square  of  32,  so  a  cabinet  containing  32  sets  of  32 
p'igeon-holes  arranged  horizontally  would  provide  locations  for  all  combina- 
tions of  Loops  and  Whorls  of  the  ten  digits  taken  in  pairs." 

Following  the  above  possible  arrangements  of  Loops  and  Whorls  on 
the  first  pair,  a  very  ingenious  key  was  adopted  to  control  the  filing  of  the 
slips  by  their  primaries.  The  key  was  arranged  like  this  and  the  slips 
filed  as  follows: 


To  simplify  the  formulation  of  the  patterns,  Henry  puts  Loops  and 
Arches  together  and  calls  them  all  Loops,  indicated  by  the  symbol  L.  In 
the  same  way  he  groups  Whorls  with  Composites  (and  Accidentals)  under 
the  name  of  Whorls,  with  the  symbol  W.  These  two  letters  are  thus  the 
only  ones  used  in  writing  finger-print  formulae,  which  are  expressed  in  the 
following  way :  — 

The  fingers  are  first  arranged  in  pairs;   thus:  — 

1st  pair,      Rt.  thumb  and  Rt.  index 
2nd  pair,     Rt.  middle  and  Rt.  ring 
3rd  pair,      Rt.  little  and  L.  thumb 
4th  pair,      L.  index  and  L.  middle 
5th  pair,      L.  ring  and  L.  little 

A  pattern  formula  for  the  complete  set  is  written  out  by  using  L  and 
W  for  the  kinds  of  patterns,  and  expressing  the  five  pairs  of  digits  in  the 
form  of  as  many  fractions.  The  numerator  gives  the  pattern  for  the  first 
of  each  pair;  the  denominator  that  for  the  second.  Here  is  a  typical 
case:  — 

W      L       L      W      L 
L;     L;     W;      L;     L 

The  order  of  the  digits,  as  here  expressed,  is  as  follows :  — 
rt.  thumb        rt.  middle          rt.  little  1.  index  1.  ring 

rt.  index  rt.  ring  1.  thumb         1.  middle  1.  little 

It  will  be  seen  that  any  one  of  these  pairs,  the  first  for  instance,  is 
capable  of  four  forms;  Loop-Loop;  Loop- Whorl;  Whorl-Loop,  and 
Whorl- Whorl,  or:  - 

L      L      W      W 

L;    W;     L;    W' 

which,  using  the  first  pair  alone,  will  divide  any  collection  of  finger-print 
formulae  into  four  groups. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification 


215 


678    9  1011  1213  11  1516  1718192021222321  2526272829303132 


For  the  purpose  of  illustration,  we  will  take  a  set  of  finger  prints 
obtained  from  J.  N,  arrange  them  in  pairs  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Henry,  the 
symbols  would  then  be  LL  —  WW— LW  —  WL  —  WL.  The  key  will 
indicate  the  one  pigeonhole  out  of  the  1,024  where  a  card  with  the  above 
formula  will  be  found. 

"Referring  to  the  key, 
LL  is  in  the  top  left-hand 
square,  defined  by  the  hori- 
zontal figures  1  to  16  and 
vertical  1  to  16.  The  next 
pair  WW  is  in  the  bottom 
right  square  of  this,  defined 
by  the  horizontal  figures  9 
to  16  and  vertical  9  to  16. 
The  next  pair  LW  is  in  the 
upper  right  square  of  this 
last,  defined  by  the  horizon- 


1 

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\^mm 

tal  figures  13  to  16  and  ver-  !7 
tical  9  to  12.     The  next  pair  " 
WL  is  in  the  bottom  left  of  31 
this    last,    defined    by    the 
horizontal  figures  13  to  14 

and  vertical  11  to  12.  The  last  pair  WL  is  in  the  bottom  left  of  this 
last,  defined  by  the  horizontal  figure  13  and  vertical  12;  i.  e.,  in  pigeon- 
hole ,-^ ,  shown  in  the  key  as  all  black.  Classification  numbers  run  from 

1  'i 

1  to  32  of  each  horizontal  row  and  not  from  1  to  1,024,  thus  JT,  represents 
the  13th  pigeonhole  of  the  12th  horizontal  row." 

"Arithmetical  rule  for  determining  primary  classification,  etc.  Simple 
as  is  the  method  of  determining  the  primary  classification  number  with 
the  aid  of  the  key  to  the  cabinet,  it  can  be  even  more  readily  arrived  at  in 
the  following  way,  which  enables  the  searcher  to  dispense  altogether  with 
the  key. 

"The  digits,  as  before,  are  taken  in  pairs,  the  first  of  the  pairs  being 
shown  as  numerator  and  the  second  as  denominator,  the  formula  of  J.  N., 
as  before,  being  of  the  following  kind: 

L_    W       L^     W      W 
L~  '  W  '  W  '   T  '   T 

"When  a  Whorl  occurs  in  the  first  pair  it  counts  16,  in  the  second  pair 
it  counts  8,  in  the  third  4,  in  the  fourth  2,  and  in  the  fifth  1 ;  no  numerical 
value  is  given  to  a  Loop.  The  above  formula  can  then  be  expressed  as: 
-jj-;  |-;  -£-;  ^-;  -J-.  Numerators  are  added  together,  also  denominators 


216  Personal  Identification 


and  the  totals  exhibited  as  a  new  fraction    -JT,.    To  both  numerator  and 
denominator  1  is  added,  making  jj/' 

The  reader  will  notice  this  fraction  of  -^  causes  the  slip  to  go  in  a 
different  pigeonhole  from  the  one  found  by  the  key,  hence  the  necessity 
of  reversing  the  fraction,  and  by  so  doing  obtaining  -^  the  same  as  ob- 
tained by  the  use  of  the  key.  This  was  the  reason  and  the  only  one  for 
reversing  the  fraction,  that  the  records  classified  numerically  would  file 
with  the  records  previously  classified  by  the  use  of  the  key.  Continuing 
the  illustration,  the  prints  from  J.  N.,  as  taken,  were  in  the  following  order: 
w  w  R — ^ — jj  — ,  and  if  we  take  the  values  obtained  from  the  right 
index,  right  ring,  left  thumb,  left  middle,  and  left  little  for  the  numerator, 
by  adding  1  we  obtain  13;  and  taking  the  values  of  the  right  thumb, 
right  middle,  right  little,  left  index,  and  left  ring  for  the  denominator,  by 
adding  1  we  obtain  12,  and  the  completed  fraction  -^  •  One  of  the  authors 
was  shown  in  the  bureau  of  a  large  police  department  a  thin  sheet  of  metal 
marked  off  in  ten  squares  the  same  size  as  the  sheet  they  were  using,  every 
other  square  was  cut  out,  and  this,  laid  a  certain  way  on  the  finger-print 
record,  exposed  only  the  five  impressions  used  in  making  up  the  values  of 
the  numerator;  the  sheet  of  metal  reversed,  then  exposed  the  five  impres- 
sions used  in  making  up  the  values  of  the  denominator.  As  a  device  to 
prevent  errors  and  save  time,  it  was  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the  equip- 
ment of  that  department. 

B.     The  Primary  Classification,  as  modified  by  the  present  authors. 

The  method  of  formulating  the  ten  fingers,  as  presented  above,  has  now 
been  in  use  wherever  finger-print  identification  is  employed,  and  has  thus 
been  given  a  thorough  test.  In  this  testing  process  the  inevitable  slight 
defects,  as  well  as  the  great  merits,  of  the  system  have  been  revealed;  and 
it  is  felt  by  the  authors  that  the  time  has  come  to  suggest  a  few  minor 
modifications,  the  necessity  for  which  has  long  been  obvious  to  all  pro- 
fessionals. The  most  essential  of  these  is  the  pairing  of  the  corresponding 
fingers  of  the  two  hands,  thus  putting  the  entire  right  hand  into  the  numerator 
and  the  left  into  the  denominator.  That  is,  instead  of  pairing  the  right 
thumb  with  the  next  finger  on  that  hand,  the  index,  and  so  on,  the  two 
thumbs  are  paired,  then  the  two  indexes,  the  two  middles,  the  two  rings, 
and  the  two  little  fingers. 

Eventually  such  a  change  must  be  made,  just  as  surely  as  the  metric 
system  of  weights  and  measures  must  eventually  replace  in  England  and 
the  United  States  the  older  system  so  long  in  use.  The  change  is  after 
all  a  slight  one,  and  a  translation  of  a  formula  from  one  system  to  the  other 
may  readily  be  made.  A  collection  of  the  records  of  10,000  individuals 
could  be  changed  over  by  an  ordinary  clerk  in  a  few  days,  and  the  new 
formulation,  added  to  the  existing  card,  would  in  no  way  injure  the  old 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  217 

*". 

record,  which  would  thus  be  as  available  as  before  for  those  who  still  classify 
by  the  present  method.  Then,  too,  where  the  average  age  of  the  indi- 
viduals recorded,  criminals  and  the  members  of  the  army,  is  somewhere 
about  thirty,  another  forty  years,  at  the  usual  death  rate,  would  find  prac- 
tically the  entire  set  thrown  out,  and  replaced  by  new  ones,  so  that  if  a 
modified  system  were  adopted  now,  all  traces  of  the  old  would  be  lost  in 
this  comparatively  short  period.  It  is  not  a  difficult  task  to  make  such 
changes  as  are  here  advocated,  and  the  gain  for  all  future  time  would  be 
beyond  computation,  while  even  from  the  start,  and  during  the  time  of 
changing  over,  there  would  be  no  necessary  confusion. 

As  this  book  is  written  for  the  future  rather  than  for  the  immediate 
present  alone,  the  modified  Primary  Classification,  as  suggested  by  prac- 
tice, and  as  actually  used  now  for  several  years  by  the  authors,  is  here 
given.* 

We  may  begin  by  writing  out  a  formula  like  those  described  above, 
with  the  ten  patterns  represented  by  letters  designating  the  types  and 
placed  in  the  form  of  a  fraction,  but  with  the  five  designations  for  the  right  hand 
in  the  numerator,  and  those  for  the  left  in  the  denominator.  Naturally,  too, 
in  the  case  of  both  hands,  the  thumb  is  placed  at  the  left,  with  the  other 
fingers  in  the  natural  order.  The  whole  expression  is  then  given  a  numeri- 
cal value  by  the  following  method: 

I.     The  four  main  types  of  patterns  are  reduced  to  two  by  classing  Arches  with 
Loops,  and  Composites  with  Whorls,  thus: 

1.  Loops  (including  Arches). 

2.  Whorls  (including  Composites). 

II.     Arbitrary  numerical  values  are  assigned  as  follows: 
A  Whorl  in  a  thumb  counts  16. 
A  Whorl  in  an  index  counts  8. 
A  Whorl  in  a  middle  finger  counts  4. 
A  Whorl  in  a  ring  finger  counts  2. 
A  Whorl  in  a  little  finger  counts  1. 
A  Loop,  wherever  found,  counts  0. 

It  is  to  be  understood  that  in  the  above  Whorls  and  Loops  are  used 
as  in  the  Henry  system,  and  include  respectively  Composites  and 
Arches.  Accidentals  also  are  classed  with  Whorls. 

The  application  of  this  can  be  seen  at  a  glance  by  taking  some  of  the 
formulae  used  above  as  illustrations,  and  translating  them  into  numbers. 

*It  will  be  seen  that  in  this  presentation  much  of  the  Henry  system  is  retained,  and 
that  the  most  radical  change  is  in  the  method  of  pairing  the  fingers,  thus  bringing  one 
entire  hand  above  the  line,  and  the  other  below  (right  hand  =  numerator;  left  hand  = 
denominator).  The  ingenious  method  of  assigning  numerical  values  to  the  Whorls, 
and  what  comes  out  of  it,  is  in  the  unmodified  Henry  system.  We  have  employed  this 
arrangement  of  material  in  order  to  present  consecutively  the  entire  procedure,  as  em- 
ployed by  us. 


218  Personal  Identification 


To  these  one  or  two  more  formulae  are  added,  to  give  greater  variety  to 
the  results. 

W  — T  — U  — U  — U  16  —  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  16 

U  — T  — U  — U  — U  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  0 

U  — T  — U  — U  — U  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  0 

U  — U— U  — U  — U  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  0 

C  — W  — U  — U  — U  16  —  8  —  0  —  0  —  0  24 

C  — U  — U  — U  — U  16  —  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  ~16~ 

U  —  A  —  U  —  U  —  U  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  0 

A  — U  — U  — U  — U  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  —  0  0 

W  —  W  —  W  —  W  —  U  16  —  8  —  4  —  2  —  0  30 

W  — W  — W  — W  — U  16  —  8  —  4  —  2  —  0  30 

A  — W  — U  —  W  — U               0  —  8  —  0  —  2  —  0  10 

U— U  —  W  — C  —  W               0  —  0  —  4  —  2  —  1  7 

C— W  — W  — U— W             16  —  8  —  4  —  0  —  1  29 


W  — W  — C— W  — W  16  —  8  —  4  —  2  —  1  31 

As  is  shown  by  the  right-hand  column,  the  fractions,  after  the  assign- 
ment of  the  numerical  values,  are  consolidated  by  adding  the  terms  to- 
gether in  the  usual  way.  In  order  to  avoid  all  O's,  and  especially  the  oft- 
recurring  fraction  -Q,  there  is  always  added  the  fraction;  — ;  so  that  the 
above  formulae,  reduced  to  the  single  numbers,  and  with  the  addition  of 
the  y ,  given  in  the  order  above,  will  read  as  follows : 

11  J_  —  _L  _i*i  11  30 

1  1  17  1  31  8  32 

Surprising  as  it  may  seem  at  first,  this  scheme  works  backward  as  well 
as  forward,  and  the  complete  formula,  with  all  ten  prints  written  out  in 
terms  of  the  two  (not  the  four)  pattern  types,  can  be  obtained  from  the 
final  fraction.  To  do  this  we  use  the  following  rules: 

1.  Subtract  the  fraction    —    from  the  fractional  formula. 

2.  Take  numerator  and  denominator  separately,  that  is,  take  one  hand  at  a 

time. 

3.  Subtract  from  the  number  given  the  numbers  16,  8,  4,  2,  and  1  in  succes- 

sion.    This  resolves  the  total  into  the  numbers  which  denote  the 
Whorls  present. 

Apply  these,  for  illustration,  to  the  third  of  the  above  formulae,  f7, 
we  first  subtract  the  -} ,  which  gives  fj.  From  the  24  take  16,  leaving  8; 
then  take  8,  leaving  0.  The  numerator  (right  hand)  thus  consists  of  the 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  219 

two  numbers  16  and  8,  and  could  not  be  made  with  any  other  combination 
of  the  five  numbers  involved.  There  is  therefore  a  Whorl  (or  Composite) 
on  the  thumb  and  index  fingers,  while  the  rest  are  Loops  or  Arches.  The 
denominator,  16,  shows  at  once  a  Whorl  on  the  left  thumb,  and  the  rest 
Loops  or  Arches. 

In  the  same  way  treat  the  last  fraction,  j^r.  This  becomes  gy  by  the 
.subtraction  of  the  y .  The  29  is  easily  resolved  into  a  16,  leaving  13,  then 
an  8,  which  leaves  5,  then  a  4,  which  leaves  1,  and  thus  indicates  the 
presence  of  Whorls  on  thumb,  index,  middle  and  little  fingers  of  the  right 
hand  (16  +  8  +  4  +  1).  The  31  of  the  left  hand  can  be  attained  only  by 
a  succession  of  five  Whorls,  16+8+4+2+1  =  31,  making  the  highest 
possible  score. 

But,  aside  from  this  use  of  the  simplified  formula,  which  is  a  condensed 
description  of  the  actual  condition  in  a  given  set  of  finger  prints,  this 
fraction  indicates  with  precision  the  place  of  the  set  in  a  filing  cabinet. 
Such  a  cabinet  has  32  drawers,  or  long  compartments,  into  which  the 
individual  records  are  placed,  by  their  denominators,  which  are  naturally 
numbered  from  1  to  32.  The  first,  second,  and  fourth  of  the  above  seven 
formulae  go  in  Drawer  Number  1;  the  sixth  goes  in  Drawer  Number  8; 
the  third  in  Drawer  Number  17,  and  so  on. 

Inside  of  each  of  the  32  drawers  there  are  found  32  compartments, 
or  perhaps  in  a  small  collection,  simple  manila  folders,  and  these  are 
numbered,  in  each  drawer,  by  the  numerators  (1  to  32).  In  this  way  there 
are  32  x  32,  or  1,024  compartments,  accommodating  the  same  number  of 
possible  fractional  pattern  formulae,  and  each  is  filed  in  its  own  proper 
place.  Of  the  seven  examples  above  given,  the  card  bearing  the  first 
formula  on  the  corner  would  go  into  the  17th  folder  of  Drawer  Number  1; 
the  third  into  the  25th  folder  of  Drawer  Number  17,  the  fifth  into  the  31st 
compartment  of  Drawer  Number  31,  and  the  seventh  into  the  30th  com- 
partment of  Drawer  Number  32,  the  last  one  in  the  cabinet.  Two,  even 
in  this  small  collection,  go  together  into  the  same  compartment,  y,  which 
is  the  commonest  of  all,  and  is  the  first  to  call  for  farther  subdivision. 

Thus  the  endless  variety  of  human  finger  prints,  set  by  set,  can  be  ar- 
ranged in  1 ,024  different  kinds,  and  be  put  into  a  cabinet  with  a  like  number 
of  compartments,  by  means  of  using  merely  the  distribution  of  the  main 
types  of  patterns.  This  is  the  Primary  Classification. 

It  is  here  to  be  noted,  that,  while  the  Primary  Classification  is  based 
upon  entire  sets,  having  the  ten  fingers,  it  is  possible  to  file  away,  and  after- 
ward find  readily,  incomplete  sets,  lacking  one  or  more  fingers,  up  to  a 
certain  point.  If,  for  example,  the  thumb  and  little  finger  are  wanting 
on  a  left  hand,  while  the  index  is  an  Arch  (0),  the  middle  finger  a  Whorl 
(4),  and  the  ring  finger  also  a  Whorl  (2),  making  a  count  of  6  for  the  three, 
we  could  then  have  only  the  following  possibilities: 


220  Personal  Identification 


Thumb  a  Whorl;   little  finger  a  Whorl,  16  +  1  -  17. 

Thumb  a  Whorl;   little  finger  a  Loop,  16  +0  =16. 

Thumb  a  Loop;   little  finger  a  Whorl,  0  +  1  -     1. 

Thumb  a  Loop;  little  finger  a  Loop,  0  +  0  =    0. 

Adding  the  known  value  of  the  rest  of  the  hand,  6,  we  have  for  the 
possible  denominator  23,  22,  7,  or  6,  and  with  the  right  hand  complete 
and  giving  a  value  of,  say,  28,  it  will  be  necessary  to  search  only  in  the 
28th  compartment  of  Drawers  23,  22,  7,  and  6;  that  is,  in  four  compart- 
ments out  of  the  1,024.  With  an  entire  hand  gone  and  the  other  complete, 
the  task  would  be  a  little  longer,  but,  even  then,  it  would  mean  only  the 
searching  through  one  entire  drawer,  if  the  left  hand  were  the  one  present, 
or  in  a  single  compartment  in  each  of  the  drawers,  if  the  right  hand  were 
the  one  present.  Always  bear  in  mind  that  the  left  hand  gives  the  number 
of  the  drawer;  the  right  that  of  the  compartment. 

C.      Secondary  Classification 

This  term  includes  the  various  methods  of  further  subdividing 
each  of  the  1,024  separate  classes  obtained  by  the  Primary  Classification, 
and  represented  by  some  fraction  from  -j  to  33.  Not  all  of  these 
methods  are  necessarily  to  be  employed,  but  they  give  certain  convenient 
methods  which  may  be  applied  according  to  the  needs  of  the  individual 
collection,  and  according  to  persorial  preference.  They  will  suggest  also 
other  ways  of  effecting  the  same  result,  as  may  be  developed  bythe  in 
genious  reader. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  separate  methods  are  not  applicable  to  all  of 
the,  classes,  but  that  certain  ones  are  especially,  or  even  exclusively,  to 
be  used  for  collections  containing  only  Loops,  or  Loops  and  Arches;  and 
that  others  are  to  be  used  in  connection  with  Whorls.  This  whole  matter 
is  so  much  one  of  individual  need  and  individual  preference  that  the 
authors  content  themselves  here  with  describing  the  principal  methods 
now  in  use,  leaving  the  application  to  the  individual  workers.  Naturally 
a  small  collection  does  not  need  as  much  subdividing  as  does  a  large  one 
and  in  the  former  case  a  given  set  of  prints  could  be  readily  found  if  only 
the  largest  classes  were  subdivided,  and  these  by  the  use  of  perhaps  a  single 
method.  However,  it  would  be  difficult  to  send  so  brief  a  formula  as 
would  here  be  employed  to  a  large  bureau  and  expect  the  search  to  be  made 
as  quickly,  and  it  is  thus  to  be  recommended  that,  even  in  a  small  collection, 
the  individual  prints  be  formulated  to  considerable  detail,  to  facilitate  the 
search  elsewhere. 

The  methods  of  Secondary  Classification  in  common  use,  some  ap- 
plicable only  to  collections  consisting  of  Loops  only  (j-) ;  others  having  a 
wider  application,  are  the  following: 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  221 

a.  Subdividing  by  the  Index  Patterns. 

1.  When  all  types  of  patterns  are  present. 

2.  When  Whorls  have  been  eliminated. 

3.  When  Whorls  and  Arches  have  both  been  eliminated  and  the  pat- 

terns consist  wholly  of  Loops. 

b.  Subdividing  by  the  Index  and  Middle  finger  Patterns, 

1.  When  all  types  of  patterns  are  present. 

2.  When  Whorls  have  been  eliminated. 

3.  When  Whorls  and  Arches  have  both  been  eliminated,  and  the  pat- 

tens consist  wholly  of  Loops. 

c.  Subdividing  by  the  Arch  Combination  in  the     -y-     Primary. 

d.  Subdividing  Radial  and  Ulnar  Loops  (without  Arches)  in  the     -r      Primary. 

e.  Subdividing  by  Ridge  Tracing. 

f.  Subdividing  by  Ridge  Counting. 

g.  Subdividing  by  Arch  Pattern  Distribution  in  the      y      Primary. 
h.  Subdividing  by  the  Ridge  Count  of  single  fingers. 

1.  Right  little  finger. 

2.  Right  little  finger  and  right  thumb. 

3.  Right  little  finger,  right  thumb,  left  thumb,  etc. 

These  will  be  taken  up  in  order. 

(a.)  Subdividing  by  the  Index  Patterns.  This  consists  simply  of  group- 
ing all  the  sets  in  a  given  compartment  according  to  the  possible  combina- 
tions of  index  patterns.  Dividing  Composites  and  Whorls  into  Inside, 
Meeting,  and  Outside  (I,  M,  O),  and  including  Tented  Arches  with  the 
more  typical  sort  (A),  the  possible  combinations  are  the  following,  the 
right  index  pattern  above,  the  left  below,  as  usual: 

AAAAAA     IIIIII     MMMMMM 


AIMORU     AIMORU     AIMORU 

O  O  O  O  O  O     R  R  R  R  R  R     U  U  U  U  U  U 
A  I  M  O  R  U     A  I  M  O  R  U     A  I  M  O  R  U 

Each  of  these  36  groups  constitutes  a  subclass,  under  which  the 
records  included  in  one  of  the  primary  classes  may  be  filed.  In  certain 
of  the  classes,  however,  especially  in  the  two  extremes  -  and  JJTJ,  the 
number  of  these  subdivisions  suffers  a  necessary  reduction,  since  the 

on 

patterns  are  not  all  present.  In  class  32,  which  is  the  most  exclusive,  the 
index  formula  present  is  naturally  I,  M,  or  O,  on  both  right  and  left,  since 
in  this  class  all  the  patterns  are  Whorls,  yet  these  give  nine  combinations. 
In  class  Y  conditions  are  also  good,  since,  although  there  are  no  Whorls, 
which  eliminates  all  of  the  27  subdivisions  with  an  I,  M,  or  O  in  them, 


Personal  Identification 


there  are  still  Arches,  Radial  and  Ulnar  Loops,  and  the  possible  sub- 
divisions are  also  9;  viz.: 

AAARRRUUU 
ARUARUARU 

In  about  half  of  the  class  -j~  there  are  no  Arches  present,  nothing 
but  the  two  kinds  of  Loops,  yet  to  subdivide  these  there  are  still  the  fol- 
lowing four  combinations,  which  may  be  used  if  desired: 

R     R     U     U 
R    U     R     U 

(b.)  Subdividing  by  the  Patterns  of  the  Index  and  Middle  Fingers.  This 
method  of  furnishing  subdivision  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  up  too  large 
accumulations  under  the  primary  classes,  is  like  the  last,  but  uses  two 
fingers  of  each  hand,  instead  of  one,  and  thus  greatly  increases  the  number 
of  the  subdivisions.  Starting,  as  in  the  first  case,  with  those  classes  that 
contain  all  types  of  patterns,  as  here  used,  A,  I,  M,  O,  R,  U,  we  have,  for 
the  possible  combinations  from  right  hands  alone  (numerators): 

AA  AI  AM  AO  AR  AU  IA  II  IM  IO  IR  IU  MA  MI  MM  MO  MR  MU 
OA  OI  OM  OO  OR  OU  RA  RI  RM  RO  RR  RU  UA  UI  UM  UO  UR  UU, 

in  all  36.  But  there  are  naturally  the  same  combinations  for  the  left 
hands  (denominators),  and  thus,  with  each  of  the  36  numerators  there 
can  be  any  one  of  the  36  denominators,  or  36  x  36,  which  equals  1,296. 
Certainly  any  class  that  contains  representatives  of  all  types  of  patterns 
would  seem  thus  to  be  sufficiently  subdivided.  Now  there  are  some 
Whorls  present,  one  at  least,  in  all  of  the  classes  except  -p  yet  here,  with 
Arches  and  Radial  and  Ulnar  Loops  only,  there  are  9  different  combinations 
for  each  hand,  AA  AR  AU  RA  RR  RU  UA  UR  UU,  in  all  81. 
When  the  Arches  fall  out,  as  in  about  one-half  of  the  }  class,  there  are  left 

4  possibilities  for  each  hand,  RR  RU  UR  UU  giving  16  for  the  two-hand 
RR    RU    UR    uu 

RR     RR     RR     RR' 


RR     RU     UR     UU 

combinations,    RR    RR    RR    RR,    etc. 


(c.)  Subdividing  by  the  Arch  Combination.  This  method  was  devised 
in  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  up  the  accumulation  of 
prints  filed  under  p  by  far  the  largest  of  all.  It  consists  simply  of  giving 
the  Arches  the  same  numerical  values  as  those  assigned  to  the  Whorls  in  making 
the  primary  classification;  16  for  an  Arch  on  the  thumb,  8  for  one  on  the 
index,  4  for  one  on  the  middle  finger,  and  so  on.  As  with  the  Whorls, 
these  values  are  to  be  added,  and  1  added  to  both  numerator  and  denomi- 
nator. This  naturally  furnishes  the  very  large  number  of  1,024  subdi- 
visions, for  all  cases  under  \,  where  there  are  Arches,  that  is,  about  half 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  223 

of  the  group.  This  fraction  is  written  in  the  formula  after  and  above 
that  of  the  ridge  count  of  the  right  little  finger,  usually  in  red  ink,  and 
makes  the  individual  record  so  distinctive  that  the  search  for  a  given  set 
is  greatly  facilitated. 

(d.)  Subdividing  Radial  and  Ulnar  Loops  (without  Arches)  in  the  \ 
Primary.  After  disposing  of  all  the  Arches,  the  remainder  of  the  ^  class, 
about  one-fifth  of  the  whole  collection,  possesses  a  large  number  of  Radial 
Loops  in  addition  to  a  much  larger  number  of  Ulnar  Loops.  These,  in 
the  case  of  a  large  collection,  require  further  subdivision.  For  this  the 
following  method  is  available.  By  the  use  of  the  index  and  middle  fingers 
of  bdth  hands,  these  16  combinations  may  be  employed, 

RR    RTJ    UR    UU   RR    RU    UR   UU 


RR   RR    RR   RR    RU   RU    RU    RU 
RR    RU    UR    UU    RR    RU    UR    UU 

iiiT     UR     InT     UR     TFu     IiiF     UTJ     W' 

dividing  the  collection  into  16  parts,  although  not  quite  evenly,  owing 
to  the  far  larger  number  of  Radial  Loops  on  the  index  fingers  than  on  the 
middle.  Each  accumulation  may  now  be  broken  up  into  16  substantially 
equal  parts,  by  the  ridge  count  of  both  index  and  middle  fingers,  expressed 
by  the  signs  —  and  +,  as  explained  later.  Each  of  these  may  then 
be  divided  by  the  ridge  count  of  the  right  little  finger;  and  any  ordinary 
collection  will  then  be  broken  up  into  sufficiently  small  groups  to  enable 
the  one  making  the  search  to  readily  find  any  record  that  may  be  on  file. 
Collections  in  the  large  Identification  Bureaus  may  require  further  sub- 
division. 

Following  the  method  suggested  below  under  the  head  of  Subdividing 
by  Ridge  Counting,  (/)  where  the  thumb,  index,  and  middle  fingers  of  each 
hand  are  utilized,  a  collection  of  Radial  and  Ulnar  Loops  would  first  be  sub- 

T>  T> 

divided  into  16  groups  by  the  ^j,  etc.,  method,  then  each  of  these  16 
groups  subdivided  by  the  4^+"  etc.,  method,  into  64  subdivisions, 
and  finally  subdivided  again  by  the  ridge  count  of  the  right  little  finger. 
Except  in  the  case  of  very  large  collections,  nothing  further  would  be  re- 
quired. 

(e.)  Subdividing  by  Ridge  Tracing.  This  is  the  method  already  ex- 
plained for  dividing  Whorls  into  their  three  groups  of  Inside,  Meeting, 
and  Outside  Whorls,  by  tracing  the  lower  radiant  proceeding  from  the 
left  delta,  and  getting  by  that  means  its  relationship  to  the  delta  of  the 
opposite  side. 

In  applying  this  to  the  purpose  of  classification  only  the  index  and 
middle  fingers  are  used,  and  the  method  is  thus  applicable  only  to  the  sub- 


224  Personal  Identification 


division  of  those  classes  in  which  one  or  both  of  these  fingers  possess  Whorls. 
Since  the  value  of  these  particular  Whorls  is  8  +4,  any  formula  with  a 
number  between  5-  16,  and  21  -  32  would  allow  it.  It  is,  however,  of 
first  importance  in  class  ff ,  where  all  the  patterns  are  Whorls,  and  in 
those  near  this  end  of  the  series.  Such  groups  are,  among  others, 

13       .11      —      —  — 

TeT'     I?'     lo"'     "32'     anc*      31' 

Using  the  usual  symbols  I,  M,  and  O,  for  the  three  kinds  of  Whorls 
and  for  Composites  that  can  be  traced,  we  find  the  following  combinations 
for  a  single  hand: 

II    IM    IO    MI    MM    MO    OI    OM    OO 

These  9  combinations  produce  81  separate  groups  when  both  hands  are 
considered  together. 

(/)  Subdividing  by  Ridge  Counting.  From  the  results  obtained  by 
counting  the  ridges  of  many  hundreds  of  Loops  from  index  fingers  it  is 
found  that  the  average  number  falls  between  9  and  10,  so  that  if  a  quantity 
of  index  finger  Loops  were  divided  into  two  groups,  one  containing  Loops 
with  a  ridge  count  of  1-9;  the  other  one  from  10  on,  the  two  would  be 
approximately  equal.  In  the  same  way  it  has  been  ascertained  that  in 
Loops  from  middle  fingers  the  average  falls  one  point  ahead,  between  10 
and  11,  middle  finger  loops  dividing  equally  as  1-10  and  11  on.  This 
somewhat  larger  average  for  the  middle  finger  is  probably  due  to  the  fact 
that  this  finger  is  broader  than  the  index. 

If  now,  in  both  fingers,  we  represent  the  lesser  group  by  — ,  and  the 
greater  by  +,  there  will  be  the  following  16  possible  combinations  of  these 
groups: 

—   4-          +  —          ++ —   +          +  —          +   + 


-J-  + 


These  16  subdivisions  are  applicable  also  to  any  classes  involving 
Loops  of  either  sort,  Ulnar  or  Radial,  on  index  and  middle  fingers.  It  is 
especially  recommended  for  the  following  classes  : 

_^_l  __  L^J.J.-LllililJLLJlJ^JiJ^.l^.l^.2^2^.^?    20 
3   17     19     13      4    19    3     41      37779^~l7~T9~20~3~~4~19~20 

and  all  combinations  of  these  numbers. 

In  this  form  Henry  and  Seymour  use  letters  instead  of  the  —  and  + 
signs,  I  for  —  and  O  for  +.  Their  subdivisions  thus  stand: 


Finger  Prints;   Description  and  Classification  225 


II 

IO 

OI 

oo 

II 

IO 

OI 

oo 

If' 

II 

Ii  ' 

IF' 

fo; 

10  ; 

fcf' 

fo~; 

II 

10 

OI 

oo 

II 

10 

OI 

oo 

01' 

01  ; 

of  ; 

or 

oo; 

oo; 

oo; 

oo; 

These  have  the  decided  disadvantage  of  being  easily  confused  with 
the  same  letters  when  used  to  designate  Inside  and  Outside  Whorls,  quite 
a  distinct  thing.  Again  the  letters  have  here  no  meaning,  as  they  stand 
for  nothing,  while  the  —  and  +  easily  suggest  the  larger  and  the  smaller 
groups,  on  either  side  of  a  definite  point. 

By  the  counting  of  the  ridges  of  the  thumbs  of  many  hundred  male 
subjects,  it  is  found  that  the  average  number  on  the  right  thumb  falls 
between  16  and  17,  and  in  the  same  way,  the  average  falls  one  point  behind 
in  left  thumbs,  i.e.,  between  15  and  16.  As  the  records  that  were  examined 
were  all  males,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  count  would  be  at  least  2  ridges 
less  in  the  case  of  females,  and  as  an  average  count  is  desired  for  both 
thumbs,  Loops  with  a  ridge  count  of  1  to  14  can  be  represented  by  — ,  and 
a  count  of  15  on  by  +.  Combining  this  with  the  —  and  +  method  for 
the  index  and  middle  fingers,  we  have  combinations  for  the  right  hand  as 
follows;-  — ;  -  +;  -  +  +;  -  +  — ;  +—  +;  +  -  — ; 

+  H ;  +  +  +,  in  all  8.  But  as  the  same  combinations  can  be  made 

from  the  thumb,  index,  and  middle  fingers  of  the  left  hand  (denominators), 
there  are  8x8  combinations,  64  in  all.  Should  letters  be  used  to  express 
the  same,  the  combinations  would  be  for  the  right  hand  (numerators) 
III  IIO  IOO  IOI  OIO  Oil  OOI  OOO,  and  the  same  for  the 
left  hand. 

(g)  Subdividing  by  Arch  Pattern  Distribution.  This  method  has 
a  special  interest  in  being  an  attempt  to  get  over  a  certain  specific 
difficulty. 

Like  the  majority  of  the  methods  of  Secondary  Classification,  it 
developed  from  the  need  of  finding  some  way  of  breaking  up  into  smaller 
groups  that  large  aggregation  of  prints  that  become  filed  away  under  the 
primary  class  -j.  When  attempting  to  subdivide  this  class  by  index 
patterns  only,  using  but  two  letters  as  a  fraction,  certain  of  the  common- 
est of  these  subdivisions  become  in  their  turn  so  large  and  cumbersome 
that  there  is  need  of  a  subdivision  of  these,  a  sub-subdivision.  For  this 
purpose  it  was  proposed  that,  aside  from  the  two  index  patterns,  which  were 
sufficiently  expressed  by  the  capital,  all  the  other  Arches  occurring  on  the 
two  hands  should  be  indicated  by  the  small  letter  a,  that  for  the  thumb 
being  placed  at  the  left  of  the  capital  letter  designating  the  index  pattern, 
and  those  of  the  remaining  fingers  on  the  right.  Instead  of  placing  an  a 
for  each  pattern,  however,  the  number  of  such  patterns  was  to  be  given, 


226  Personal  Identification 


followed  by  a  single  a.     There  thus  resulted  formulae  like  the  following, 
added  to  the  class  formula  p 

Aa        aU2a       aR         Aa         l'2a          Aa 


_ 
aU2a        ~Ua~        U          R2a      aUa          aU2a. 

Not  counting  the  letters  involved  in  the  original  fraction,  and  indi- 
cating the  patterns  of  the  two  index  fingers,  the  Arch  Combinations  are 
8  in  number,  as  follows  :  The  letter  A  is  used  to  show  the  position  of  the 
index.  A  aA 

Aa  aAa 

A2a  aA2a 

A3a  aA3a 

But  each  one  of  the  three  patterns  found  in  the  class  (A,  R,  U)  may 
be  used  in  the  index  place,  thus  giving  8  +8  +  8,  or  24,  combinations  for 
one  hand.  Multiplying  this  by  itself  in  the  usual  way  to  get  the  combina- 
tions for  two  hands,  we  get  576,  the  number  of  subdivisions  into  which 
the  -j  class  may  be  divided  by  this  method.  The  difficulty  here  is  that 
only  about  half  of  the  j  class  possess  Arches,  so  that  the  plain  formulae, 
like  |f,  or  -g,  with  no  a's  added,  will  remain  much  overcrowded. 

(h)  Subdividing  by  the  Ridge  Count  of  single  fingers.  This  method 
is  always  applied  to  the  right  little  finger  when  it  is  a  loop,  for  the 
subdivision  of  all  aggregations,  large  or  small.  It  might  happen,  however, 
that  in  some  groups,  a  still  further  differentiation  would  be  advisable.  We 
could  then  make  a  subdivision  of  this  small  number  by  a  ridge  count  of 
the  right  thumb.  In  a  collection  so  large  that  the  groups  carried  out  to 
such  detail  might  still  be  inconveniently  numerous,  the  subdivision  could 
pass  in  succession  to  all  the  other  fingers,  but  in  practice  nothing  has  ever 
been  needed  beyond  one  more  finger,  the  left  thumb. 

This  long  array  of  possible  subdivisions,  useful  for  the  splitting  up 
of  the  large  and  rather  featureless  class  of  —  would  be  the  following: 

I.     Subdivision  by  the  Arch  combination,  which  eliminates  about  one  half. 

II.     Subdivision  of  the  remaining  half  of  y  the  class  containing  Radial  and  Ulnar 

RR 
.    Loops,   by  the  g^p  etc.  combinations,  into    16   groups,   each   group 

further  subdivided  by  the  —  and  +  combinations,  and  each  group 
again  subdivided  by  the  ridge  count  of  the  right  little  finger. 

III.  Further  subdivision  of  any  of  the  16  groups  that  is  too  large  by  means  of 

the  ridge  count  of  the  right  thumb.  This  would  divide  a  group  to 
which  it  was  applied  into  some  20  to  30  subdivisions. 

IV.  More  than  the  above  would  be  hardly  necessary,  even  if  the  start  were 

made  with  the  prints  of  a  million  individuals,  yet,  if  needed,  there 
are  plenty  more  applicable  means  of  subdividing.  Here  the  ridge 
count  of  the  left  thumb  is  suggested,  beyond  which  no  one  has  as  yet 
had  occasion  even  to  suggest. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  227 

THE    FILING    OF    FINGER-PRINT    RECORDS:     CARD    CATALOGUES 

The  Writing  of  Formulae.  In  writing  out  the  formula  with  the  ridge 
count  of  single  fingers  included;,  these  latter  appear  as  detached  numbers, 
appended  to  the  end  (right  side)  of  the  fraction.  Where  one  number  alone 
is  so  given  it  is  to  be  understood  that  it  is  the  count  of  the  right  little  finger; 
where  there  are  two,  the  one  on  the  left  is  this  one  and  the  fraction  above 
and  to  the  right,  is  that  of  the  Arch  Combination. 

The  following  illustrate  the  appearance  of  the  full  formulae  for  sets 
in  the  y  group,  illustrating  the  application  of  the  various  methods: 


1 

RU    (—  +) 

12  ^  7' 

1 

a  UU    (+  +) 

1 

a  AU 

12  <*ti 

(2) 

1 

a  A  A 

1 

R  U       (  +  —  ) 

7 

(3) 

1 

UR      (+  +) 

(A\ 

1 

UU      (+  +) 

8 

W 

1 

U  U      (  ) 

(5) 


These  are  for  use  in  a  very  large  collection : 

1         UU      (—  +  +)       15 
1         RU      (  +  —  +) 

-¥-) 

5     / 


1     a  UA      (— )  a 

(6) 


1         U  A      (  +) 

In  the  first  (1)  the  presence  of  an  a  before  the  U  indicates  the  position 
in  which  it  stands,  an  Arch  on  the  left  thumb.  As  there  are  no  others  in 
the  formula  it  shows  that  there  are  no  other  Arches  present;  it  indicates 
also,  that  the  small  fractions  at  the  end  refers  to  the  Arch  Combination, 
the  value  of  which,  16+1,  for  the  denominator,  also  indicates  an  Arch 
on  the  left  thumb.  The  signs  in  parentheses  indicate  the  ridge  count, 
whether  more  or  less  than  the  average,  on  index  and  middle  fingers,  and 
the  figure  12,  above  the  line,  shows  the  exact  ridge  count  of  the  right  little 
finger. 

Formula  Number  2  is  similar,  but  indicates  the  presence  of  more 
Arches.  The  single  a  in  the  denominator  indicates  an  Arch  on  the 
left  thumb,  the  capital  letters  AA  indicate  Arches  on  the  left  index  and 
left  middle  fingers,  and  is  precisely  indicated  by  the  small  fraction  at  the 
end,  which  gives  the  value  29  for  the  left-hand  Arches.  From  this  sub- 
tract the  usual  1,  making  28;  then  the  16,  8,  and  4,  indicating  an  Arch  on 
the  thumb,  index,  and  middle  fingers  of  the  left  hand. 

In  (5)  the  signs  in  parentheses  indicate  the  ridge  count  whether  more 
or  less  than  the  average,  on  thumb,  index,  and  middle  fingers. 


228  Personal  Identification 


13 

MM 

13 

16 

IO 

32 

IO 

0 

32 

MI 

25 

IU 

(      —  ) 

In  (6)  the  signs  in  parentheses  indicate  that  both  index  fingers  are 
Loops,  the  a  in  the  place  of  the  ridge  count  of  the  right  little  finger,  indi- 
cates an  Arch  on  that  finger,  and  that  is  also  indicated  by  the  numerator 
of  the  fraction  that  indicates  the  Arch  Combination  (y) ,  which  can  only 
be  made  from  16  +4  +1,  which  with  1  added  make  22.  Many  do  not  put 
the  a  at  the  end,  but  the  authors  believe  that  the  formula  of  a  finger-print 
record  should  be  reasonably  complete,  without  being  crowded  to  the 
extent  of  being  confusing. 

In  other  classes  besides  the  y  the  subclassification  need  not  be  so 
long  and  complicated,  since  the  number  of  individual  sets  to  be  classified 
is  not  nearly  so  numerous.  Thus,  for  many  cases  an  entire  formula  may 
include  but  a  single  method  of  secondary  classification: 

(7) 

(8) 

az  mi 

(9)      25 m (    -;       7 

17  UR          (—  +) 

Numbers  7  and  8  show  the  classification  of  Whorls,  where  both  index 
and  middle  fingers  of  both  hands  possess  them.  In  (9)  there  is  but  a  single 
Whorl  on  these  fingers,  and  two  other  types,  as  is  indicated  by  the  letters 
R  and  U.  The  letter  I  fixes  the  position  of  the  single  Whorl  involved,  and 
describes  it  at  the  same  time.  The  next  following  fraction,  Gz~qr ) 
indicates  the  ridge-count  combinations  of  the  Loops. 

Classification  in  the  case  of  damaged  or  missing  fingers.  In  cases  of 
missing  fingers,  or  where,  through  scars  or  otherwise  a  satisfactory  print 
cannot  be  taken,  the  corresponding  space  on  the  record  card  is  filled  in, 
with  the  abbreviation  ampul  (amputated)  or  def  (defective),  as  the  case 
may  be.  In  such  cases  the  corresponding  finger  of  the  other  hand  is  used 
for  classification.  If  the  same  digit  is  wanting  or  defective  on  both  hands, 
the  pattern  is  called  a  Meeting  Whorl,  and  the  record  is  classified  accord- 
ingly. The  absence  of  even  more  than  two  digits  does  not  prevent  classi- 
fication.* 

Subjects  with  only  one  hand  may  be  kept  in  a  file  by  themselves,  and 
with  these  may  be  included  the  rare  cases  with  extra  digits,  such  as  two 
thumbs  or  five  fingers  and  a  thumb.  In  an  ordinary  collection  these  would 

*  Where  a  digit  is  damaged  to  such  an  extent  that  the  pattern  cannot  be  deter- 
mined, the  print  is  classified  as  if  the  finger  were  missing  entirely;  but  in  prints  where 
there  are  scars  not  serious  enough  to  cause  doubt  as  to  the  nature  of  the  pattern,  no 
attention  is  paid  to  the  scar.  Where  there  are  short  creases,  generally  the  result  of 
age,  no  attention  is  paid  to  them  in  classifying. 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification  229 

be  so  few  as  to  render  any  subclassification  unnecessary.  When  this 
accumulation  becomes  too  large  for  convenience,  an  applicable  system 
could  be  readily  devised,  based  upon  the  usual  methods,  which  would 
prove  satisfactory.  In  cases  of  major  defects  of  both  hands,  involving  all 
the  fingers,  it  would  be  easily  possible  to  use  the  soles,  employing  the 
system  described  above. 

Method  of  Search,  The  usual  occasion  for  employing  a  classified 
finger-print  file  is  to  find  the  duplicate  of  either  a  set  of  prints  handed  over 
for  the  purpose,  or  of  the  finger  patterns  of  some  person  actually  under 
inspection.  The  request  may  come  in  the  form  of  a  written  formula  on 
a  card,  or  of  an  actual  set  of  prints.  As  the  formula  is  the  real  point  of 
departure  needed  in  order  to  find  a  given  set,  when  the  request  is  given 
in  the  form  of  actual  prints,  these  are  to  be  at  once  formulated,  and  the 
latter  employed  for  the  purpose.  When  a  certain  card,  or  a  small  package 
of  very  similar  cards,  has  been  found  in  the  collection,  the  detailed  com- 
parison is  to  be  made,  print  for  print,  but  all  handling  of  the  collection 
as  a  whole  should  be  by  formula. 

The  method  of  effecting  this  is  best  shown  by  an  example.  Suppose 
the  following  card  is  given  in  at  headquarters,  with  the  request  to  find 
whether  it  is  in  the  collection  or  not,  and  if  so  to  bring  it  out  for 
comparison : 

19         TJU     (—  +)          U 

19         RU     (—  +) 

The  expert  in  charge  goes  at  once  to  Drawer  Number  19,  and  takes 
from  it  the  19th  of  the  32  folders.  From  the  subdivisions  of  this,  he  selects 
that  labelled  ^§.  This  is  found  divided  into  16  divisions,  bearing  the 
various  combinations  of  signs,  and  selects  the  combination  (^q: )  •  Even 
though  the  entire  collection  number  hundreds  of  thousands,  there  would 
be  expected  only  a  small  group  here,  perhaps  fewer  than  30,  where  it  would 
not  be  a  long  matter  to  look  over  each  card  individually  to  compare  with 
the  sample  prints;  but  in  this  case  the  formula  gives  a  further  specification 
which  renders  even  this  amount  of  comparison  unnecessary,  and  states  the 
exact  ridge  count  of  the  right  little  finger,  14.  Out  of  the  lot  there  may 
be  two,  or  even  three,  which  correspond  even  this  far,  and  these  are  finally 
taken  from  the  cabinet.  The  final  selection  must  then  be  made  by  com- 
paring the  actual  prints  of  the  individual  sought,  with  this  small  number, 
and  the  decision  can  usually  be  reached  in  a  moment.  Usually,  with 
so  complete  a  formula,  there  would  be  no  need  of  this  final  comparison, 
for  with  the  ridge  count  the  formula  would  definitely  point  to  one  individual 
record,  and  only  one;  but  in  any  case,  the  formula  in  question  would  be 
•almost  as  readily  found  as  a  word  in  a  dictionary  or  a  name  in  a  directory. 

If  a  given  formula  cannot  be  found,  it  would  probably  mean  that  the 


230  Personal  Identification 


prints  of  the  individual  desired  were  not  in  the  collection;  yet  it  would  be 
well  to  look  for  all  possible  errors  in  formulating  or  filing,  and  continue 
the  search  among  closely  related  formulae,  as  would  be  done  in  a  directory 
in  the  case  of  surnames  with  more  than  one  usual  spelling.  Thus  always, 
in  a  ridge  count,  a  limit  of  error  of  2  is  allowed  on  either  side,  and  in  finding 
14,  as  here,  the  cards  from  12  to  16  are  included  in  the  search.  (In  some 
bureaus  a  ridge  count  of  3  on  either  side  has  been  adopted.) 

Filing  the  Finger-Print  Cards  in  a  Collection.  In  the  matter  of  filing 
the  finger-print  cards  the  limits  of  this  chapter  prevent  any  extended  ex- 
planation. When  a  collection  is  small  it  may  be  filed  by  the  primaries 
only,  subdividing  later,  as  the  separate  classes  become  individually  large 
enough  to  render  it  advisable.  The  various  smaller  subdivisions  are  also 
to  be  added  according  to  need,  and  in  the  accumulations  that  require  it, 
so  that  in  a  collection  of  moderate  size  it  would  be  quite  possible  to  find 
some  of  the  32  primary  classes  divided  and  subdivided  to  the  ridge  count, 
while  others  remain  undivided. 

Guide  cards  for  the  various  methods  of  subdivision  may  be  made  to 
order,  according  to  requirement.  As  for  the  record  cards  themselves 
nearly  all  the  police  departments  in  the  country  employ  one  8  inches  square, 
but  the  United  States  Government  has  a  special  size,  8  inches  high  and 
7  inches  wide.  The  first  slips  used  were  of  paper,  about  13  inches  long 
and  8^2  inches  wide.  Instead  of  filing  vertically,  as  is  now  universal,  they 
were  laid  flat. 

The  card,  which  combines  the  data  of  the  older  identification  card 
with  the  finger  prints,  must  in  all  cases  be  large  enough  to  contain  the 
following: 

1.  Name  and  aliases,  nationality,  criminal  specialty,  etc. 

2.  The  two  Bertillon  photographs,  front  and  side. 

3.  The  Bertillon  measurements,  with  some  data  concerning  eyes, 

hair,  and  facial  features. 

4.  The  ten  finger  prints. 

5.  The  formula  for  the  same. 

6.  Bodily  marks,  scars,  tattooing,  etc. 

7.  Criminal  history. 

Since  both  sides  of  a  card  are  available,  all  the  above  can  be  brought 
within  a  small  compass  without  crowding,  and,  in  a  large  collection,  a 
reduction  of  the  size  of  the  card  is  a  manifest  advantage.  The  authors 
find  that  a  card  6x6  inches  answers  very  well,  and  has  been  used  for  some 
years  with  excellent  results.  It  accommodates  data  1  -  5  on  one  side, 
and  leaves  plenty  of  room  for  data  6  and  7  upon  the  other  (Figure  84), 
The  "plain"  or  "dab,"  impressions  —  that  is,  the  four  fingers  held  to- 


Finger  Prints;    Description  and  Classification 


231 


gether,  and  printed  at  one  stroke  —  are  omitted,  as  their  advantage  is 
not  considered  great  enough  to  compensate  for  the  room  they  occupy. 
Greater  care  while  taking  the  prints,  always  putting  each  finger  in  the 
proper  place,  will  obviate  the  necessity  of  depending  on  such  prints  for 
the  order  of  the  fingers,  and  saves  much  space  in  the  files. 


FIGURE  84.  Identification  card  measuring  6x6  inches,  as  used  by  the  authors. 
The  finger  prints  are  wholly  upon  the  front,  with  the  photographs  and  Bertillon  measure- 
ments. Upon  the  backside  are  name,  aliases  and  other  data,  the  bodily  marks  and 
the  criminal  history.  Plain  impressions  (four  fingers  together,  not  rolled)  are  omitted. 
The  above  illustration  reduced  %. 

The  vertical  system  of  filing  is  undoubtedly  the  best  and  cheapest 
method.  For  this  the  drawers  should  have  inside  dimensions  a  little  greater 
than  that  of  the  cards,  yet  not  enough  to  allow  the  cards  to  slip  out  of 
alignment  and  look  disorderly.  For  the  usual  8x8  cards,  with  guide 
cards  standing  up  above  the  rest  some  half  inch  or  so,  the  drawers  should 


•j:iL'  Personal  Identification 


have  a  depth  of  perhaps  9  or  9^  inches,  and  a  width  of  8^  inches.  They 
should  always  be  provided  with  adjustable  sliding  boards  to  stand  back 
of  the  cards  and  keep  them  held  upright,  whether  many  or  few. 

A  small  collection  can  be  well  accommodated  in  a  cabinet  of  32  such 
drawers,  and  the  32  subdivisions  of  each  drawer  can  be  made  by  guide 
cards,  projecting  a  little  above  the  level  of  the  rest.  The  drawers  might 
bear  on  the  outside  the  numbers  for  the  denominators,  the  left-hand 
formulae,  and  the  guide  cards  within  those  of  the  numerators,  the  right- 
hand  formulae.  In  a  growing  collection  the  first  pinch  is  naturally  felt 
in  the  --  class,  and  a  second  special  cabinet  of  some  form  might  be  ar- 
ranged for  the  expansion  of  this  class,  leaving  the  original  cabinet  for  the 
other  31  formula?,  for  which  it  would  probably  be  sufficient  for  some 
time  to  come. 

In  all  cases,  whether  the  original  accommodations  be  ample  or  re- 
stricted, it  saves  time  in  the  end  if  the  formulation  of  each  card  entered 
be  made  as  complete  as  if  intended  for  a  place  in  a  filing  cabinet  for  a 
million  cards.  Since,  in  a  rapidly  growing  collection,  the  accumulation 
of  the  -y  class  is  to  be  expected,  the  full  formulation  of  each,  with  the  ridge 
count  for  each  finger,  should  be  carefully  made  out  for  each  card  before 
filing.  This  will  not  only  be  of  great  use  in  expanding  the  collection,  but 
will  allow  the  sending  of  the  formula  at  any  instant  to  a  larger  bureau, 
which  would  require  the  additional  data. 

When  transitional  patterns  are  met  with,  where  there  may  be  some 
doubt  as  to  the  type  to  which  it  may  be  assigned,  it  is  a  good  plan  to  mark 
it  with  a  question  mark  after  the  first  decision  is  made,  and  then  lay  it 
aside  for  a  day  or  so.  It  may  then  be  examined  anew,  either  by  the  same 
operator  or  by  another,  and,  if  the  same  conclusion  is  reached,  it  may  be 
filed. 

Before  filing  any  finger-print  card  an  alphabetical  index  card  should 
be  made  of  the  same  subject,  bearing  name  and  formula.  These  cards 
should  be  placed  in  a  card  index  of  the  usual  types,  filed  by  the  name, 
alphabetically,  thus : 

DOE,  John  (alias  Richard  Roe),     

17     U  U     (  +  — ) 

Cards  should  also  be  made  out  for  each  alias,  with  the  formula, 
referring  to  the  original  name,  and  included  in  the  same  index,  thus: 

ROE,  Richard  (alias  for  John  Doe), 


17       U  U     (  +  — ) 


Such  an  index  furnishes  the  immediate  answer  to  such  questions  as 
the  following: 


Finger  Prints;   Description  and  Classification  233 

1.  What  is  the  finger-print  formula  for  John  Doe? 

2.  We  have  detained  here  a  man,  suspected  of  being  Samuel  Jones, 

wanted  for  the  Robinson  burglary  at  X — .     Has  your 

bureau  his  finger  prints,  and  if  so,  what  are  they? 

Without  the  name  index  to  supplement  the  index  of  finger  prints  these 
questions  must  remain  unanswered;  with  it,  the  reply  can  be  sent  im- 
mediately. 

Sometimes,  especially  in  the  identification  of  chance  impressions,  the 
print  of  a  single  finger  only  is  known,  and,  unless  additional  data  are  ob- 
tained, limiting  the  search  to  the  finger  patterns  of  a  few  suspected  parties, 
the  case  is  practically  hopeless.  This  difficulty  has  been  removed  at  the 
police  headquarters  at  Madrid,  Spain,  since  the  prefect  of  that  city,  Seftor 
Oloriz,  has  established  there  an  index  for  the  separate  fingers  of  those 
whose  records  are  contained  in  their  files.  He  can  thus,  by  the  help  of 
this  special  index,  turn  to  a  given  finger  print,  and  find  it  with  nearly  the 
same  readiness  that  can  be  done  with  the  usual  collection  of  complete  sets. 
This  would  be  an  ideal  method  to  establish  in  all  our  cities,  especially  for 
records  of  the  criminal  classes,  where  frequently  the  identification  of  a 
single  print  comes  to  consideration. 

In  presenting  this  chapter,  which  is  intended  to  serve  as  a  practical 
working  Manual  of  the  Finger-Print  System,  as  used  at  present,  the  authors 
wish  to  express  the  debt  of  gratitude  the  entire  world  owes  to  that  trio 
of  illustrious  Englishmen,  Sir  William  Herschel,  Sir  Francis  Galton,  and 
Sir  Edward  Richard  Henry.  Each  of  these  in  order  did  his  part  in  the 
development  of  this  great  System  of  Personal  Identification,  and  assisted 
in  bringing  it  to  its  present  degree  of  usefulness.  Especially  do  the  authors 
wish  to  express  their  admiration  for  the  genius  of  the  last  named,  the 
honored  chief  of  New  Scotland  Yard,  who  put  the  system  into  actual  use. 
The  world  owes  to  him  a  debt  of  gratitude,  not  only  for  what  has  been 
made  possible  in  its  present  restricted  field  of  police  circles,  but  also  for 
rendering  possible  the  broader  applications  which  are  bound  soon  to  develop 
in  families,  in  cities,  in  commonwealths,  and  perhaps  in  the  nation. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FINGER  PRINTS:    THE  CODE 

"We  had  a  Rabbinical  Divine  in  England,  who  was  Chaplain  to  the 
Earl  of  Essex  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  that  had  an  admirable  head  for 
Secrets  of  this  Nature.  Upon  his  taking  the  Doctor  of  Divinity's  Degree,  he 
preached  before  the  University  of  Cambridge,  upon  the  first  Verse  of  the  first 
Chapter  of  the  first  Book  of  Chronicles,  in  which,  says  he,  you  will  see  the  three 
following  words:  'Adam;  Sheth;  Enoch.'  He  divided  this  short  Text  into 
many  Parts,  and  by  discovering  several  Mysteries  in  each  word,  made  a  most 
learned  and  elaborate  Discourse."  —  Joseph  Addison;  in  the  London  Specta- 
tor, No.  221.  Nov.  13, 1711. 

IN  the  year  1911  one  of  the  authors  had  occasion  to  call  up  the  Police 
Department  in  a  distant  city  about  a  person  under  arrest.  This 
individual  had  given  a  name  that  was  thought  to  be  false,  and  his 
correct  name  and  criminal  history  were  desired.  The  details  of  the  im- 
prints from  his  ten  fingers  were  given  in  order,  beginning  with  the  right 
thumb  and  ending  with  the  left  little  finger,  and  the  personal  description, 
including  age,  height,  weight,  color  of  hair  and  eyes,  was  also  given.  In 
a  very  short  time  the  correct  name  and  history  of  the  man  were  telephoned 
back. 

A  similar  incident  took  place  on  Monday,  August  30,  1915,  when 
Lieutenant  Damery  of  the  Somerville  (Massachusetts)  Police  Depart- 
ment telephoned  Mr.  R.  C.  Hill,  in  charge  of  the  Bureau  of  Identification 
at  the  State  House,  Boston,  Massachusetts,  about  a  man  arrested  in  Som- 
erville the  Saturday  before.  Lieutenant  Damery  telephoned  the  details 
of  the  prints  from  the  ten  fingers  of  the  arrested  man,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
Mr.  Hill  telephoned  back  the  name  and  history  of  the  suspect.  In  this 
short  time,  with  nothing  but  a  brief  description  of  the  finger  prints  for 
identification,  the  card  of  this  particular  man  had  been  selected  from  the 
thousands  on  file. 

These  two  incidents,  although  perhaps  no  longer  rare,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  practical  demonstrations  of  what  can  be  done,  in  the  absence 
of  the  actual  prints  by  two  persons  having  a  common  understanding. 
The  main  difficulty  consists  of  the  methods  of  describing  the  separate 
prints,  since  (1)  each  expert  might  use  his  own  language,  and  thus  cause 
frequent  misunderstandings,  and  (2)  the  number  of  words  employed  would 
be  large.  This  latter  difficulty  would  be  of  little  significance  when  using 

234 


Finger  Prints:    the  Code  235 


the  telephone,  but,  from  its  cost,  would  render  the  telegraph,  often  a 
much  better  medium  of  communication,  often  prohibitive. 

Here,  however,  a  suggestion  comes  from  the  extensive  employment 
of  codes,  especially  in  transatlantic  messages,  where,  by  means  of  duplicate 
lists  in  the  possession  of  both  sender  and  receiver,  a  single  meaningless 
word  may  have  the  value  of  an  entire  phrase  or  sentence.  If,  in  the  case 
under  consideration,  a  single  code  word  could  express  a  special  type  and 
variety  of  finger  pattern,  the  ten  words  employed  to  describe  an  entire 
set  of  finger  prints  would  come  precisely  within  the  limit  of  the  minimum 
telegraph  rate.  Where  the  same  description  needs  to  be  sent  to  several 
diffierent  places  at  the  same  time,  the  telegraph,  used  with  such  a  code, 
would  have  great  advantages  over  the  telephone  in  every  way,  saving  time, 
money,  and  labor. 

Such  a  code,  for  describing  finger  prints,  is  given,  in  what  will  probably 
prove  to  be  sufficient  detail,  in  the  present  chapter;  and  to  it  are  added 
codes  for  general  description,  including  the  Bertillon  measurements  for 
every  millimeter  within  probable  limits.  Already  subjected  to  a  limited 
number  of  practical  trials,  they  seem  to  be  entirely  satisfactory;  and  even 
though  a  more  extended  use  may  very  likely  suggest  some  modifications, 
they  will  probably  not  be  very  extensive.  At  any  rate  the  only  proof  to 
which  such  a  system  can  be  subjected  is  the  practical  one  of  actual  trial. 
The  authors  offer  this  code  with  the  hope  that  it  may  prove  of  real  value 
to  the  world. 

To  explain  the  workings  of  the  code,  we  may  take  first  the  matter  of 
the  finger  prints  alone.  These  are  taken  in  the  customary  order : 

Rt.  Thumb;    Rt.  Index;    Rt.   Middle;    Rt.  Ring;    Rt.  Little. 
Lft.  Thumb;   Lft.  Index;   Lft.  Middle;   Lft.  Ring;   Lft.  Little. 

A  sample  message,  giving  the  finger  prints  of  a  suspect,  may  be  as 
follows : 

Wordy  Ladle  Upright  Wagon  When 

Travel  Arbor  Celery  Always  Ruddy 

The  recipient  of  this  message  would  then  turn  to  his  code,  which  he 
would  use  like  a  dictionary,  and  in  a  few  minutes  would  have  it  translated, 
thus: 

Wordy:     An  Elongated  Whorl;    inside  tracing  by  17  ridges. 

Ladle:     A  Lateral-Pocket  Loop;    inside  tracing  by  10  ridges. 

Upright:     An   Ulnar  Loop  with  a  count  of  15  ridges;    approximating  a  central 

pocket. 

Wagon:     A  Whorl;    inside  tracing  by  13  ridges. 
When:     A  Whorl;    outside  tracing  by  12  ridges. 

Travel:     A  Twin-Loop;    outside  tracing  by  12  ridges. 
Arbor:     A  Tented  Arch. 


236  Personal  Identification 


Celery:     A  Central- Pocket  Loop;    tracing,  a  meeting,  having  2  ridges  inside. 
Always:     An  Inside  Accidental.     The  sender  cannot  tell  the  ridge  count. 
Ruddy:     A  Radial  Loop,  with  a  count  of  13  ridges;    the  pattern  resembles  the 
"Invaded  Loop"  of  Gallon. 

From  this  specification,  thus  expanded,  the  recipient  may  easily  write 
out  the  classification  formula,  which  is  23  AM  Such  an  unusual  com- 
bination would  require  nothing  more. 

For  an  ordinary  case,  where,  for  instance,  the  patterns  were  all 
Ulnar  Loops,  we  might  have  the  following: 

Uncap  Unclad  Unclose  Uncutx  Unbend 

Uncivil  Under  Undone  Unclean          Unarm 

All  of  these  words  will  be  found  in  the  code  listed  under  Ulnar  Loops, 
and  express  the  different  ridge  counts  of  this  common  pattern. 
The  translation  of  this  message  is  as  follows: 

Uncap:     Ulnar  Loop;    ridge  count  6. 

Unclad:     Ulnar  Loop;    ridge  count  8. 

Unclose:     Ulnar  Loop;   ridge  count  11. 

Uncutx:     Ulnar  Loop;    ridge  count  14;    a  scar  on  the  pattern,  not  sufficient  to 

obliterate  it. 
Unbend:     Ulnar  Loop;    ridge  count  5. 

Uncivil:     Ulnar  Loop;    ridge  count  7. 
Under:     Ulnar  Loop;   ridge  count  15. 
Undone:     Ulnar  Loop;    ridge  count  17. 
Unclean:     Ulnar  Loop;    ridge  count  10. 
Unarm:     Ulnar  Loop;   ridge  count  3. 

The  letter  x,  seen  here  added  to  the  word  Uncut,  the  code  word  for 
the  right  ring  finger,  may  be  added  to  any  of  the  code  words  signifying 
finger  patterns,  and  signifies  the  presence  of  a  scar  or  injury,  more  or  less 
noticeable,  but  not  sufficient  to  destroy  the  pattern,  or  prevent  its  reading. 
It  makes  no  sense,  and  often  renders  the  word  unpronouncable,  but  in 
reading  the  word  aloud,  it  can  be  pronounced  as  usual,  adding  the  x  to 
it  as  a  separate  syllable.  In  using  this,  too  small  scars  should  be  ignored, 
and  the  recipient  should  bear  in  mind  that  any  scar  indicated  might  have 
been  acquired  subsequent  to  the  taking  of  the  prints  he  may  have  on  file. 

The  code  for  the  age,  height,  weight,  Bertillon  measurements,  etc., 
is  to  be  used  in  the  same  way  as  that  for  the  finger  prints.  The  sender, 
who  has  the  expanded  data,  probably  derived  at  first  hand  from  a  suspect, 
translates  them  into  the  language  of  the  code,  and  sends  that  to  the  re- 
cipient, who  translates  the  message  back  into  its  expanded  form. 

As  an  illustration,  the  following  code  telegram,  received  at  headquar- 
ters at  X ,  contains  the  finger  prints  and  full  description,  including  the 

Bertillon  measurements,  of  a  certain  safe-blower.  It  consists  of  25  words, 
but  expands  to  163. 


Finger  Prints:    the  Code  237 


Whelm 
Usure 

Wharf 
Wader 

Wharf 
Wader 

Wedge 
Wabble 

Wheeze 
Water 

Yate 

Odd 

Ideate 

Jest 

Neigh 

Harem 
Menace 

Heir 
Defix 

Darling 
Berlin 

Farrier 
Slice 

Giggle 
Echo 

Of  this  telegram,  the  first  ten  words  give  the  finger  prints.  There 
are  always  ten  of  these,  for  when  a  finger  is  missing  its  place  is  kept 
by  the  use  of  the  code  word  ABSENT.  The  next  five  words,  in  the  order 
given,  signify:  age,  weight,  eye  color,  hair  color,  shape  of  nose.  Then 
follow  the  full  ten  Bertillon  measurements. 

The  translation  of  the  above  is  as  follows: 

Finger  Prints. 

Rt.  Thumb.     Outside  Whorl  by  10  ridges. 

Rt.  Index.     Outside  WThorl  by  5  ridges. 

Rt.  Middle.     Outside  Whorl  by  5  ridges. 

Rt.  Ring.     Meeting  Whorl,  having  2  ridges  inside. 

Rt.  Little.     Outside  Whorl  by  9  ridges. 

Lft.  Thumb.     Ulnar  Loop,  invaded  type  of  Galton;   count  of  16  ridges. 

Lft.  Index.     Inside  Whorl  by  6  ridges. 

Lft.  Middle.     Inside  Whorl  by  6  ridges. 

Lft.  Ring.     Inside  Whorl  by  3  ridges. 

Lft.  Little.     Inside  Whorl  by  7  ridges. 

Age,  thirty-six  years. 

Weight,  one  hundred  and  seventy  pounds. 

Color  of  Eyes,  slate  blue. 

Color  of  Hair,  dark  chestnut.  Lft.  forearm,  47.6. 

Nose,  ridge  straight;   base  horizontal.  Total  height,  1.68.5. 

Head  length,  20.0.  Lft.  lit.  fin.,  9.1. 

Head  width,  16.1.  Ht.  trunk,  87.6. 

Lft.  mid.  fin.,  11.9.  Arm  reach,  1.79.0. 

Lft.  foot,  26.2.  Length  rt.  ear,  6.1. 

While  a  rigid  order  is  necessary  for  the  ten  finger  patterns,  no  harm 
would  be  done  by  sending  the  Bertillon  measurements  or  the  personal 
description  in  any  other  order,  or  in  mixing  them  up  completely,  as  there 
are  no  duplicate  words  used  in  the  code,  and  each  word,  when  found,  shows 
by  its  place  in  the  code  what  its  meaning  is.  Footnotes  on  the  code  tables 
for  the  finger  prints  direct  the  user  what  to  do  in  case  a  delta  is  missing, 
and  either  the  count  or  the  tracing,  or  both,  cannot  be  ascertained.  In 
the  case  of  whorls  the  tracing,  though  not  the  ridge  count,  may  sometimes 
be  learned  in  the  absence  of  one  of  the  deltas,  as  explained  in  Chapter  VI. 
There  is  also  a  place  in  the  code  for  fingers  variously  damaged,  or  lost, 
with  the  heading,  Injured  and  Missing. 

In  the  tables  for  the  Bertillon  heights  the  equivalents  for  the  even 
inches  are  given  in  a  distinct  type,  to  aid  in  the  comparison  between  the 


Personal  Identification 


metric  and  English  measures.  Any  fraction  between  the  even  inches  may 
be  readily  found  also,  as  a  millimeter  is  almost  exactly  l/25th  of  an  inch. 
To  illustrate,  if  the  height  of  a  given  subject  was  5  feet  8  \  inches,  the  word 
selected  would  be  MIRE;  that  is,  a  code  word  about  halfway  between  the 
place  for  5  feet  8  inches  and  5  feet  9  inches.  As  a  reminder,  it  may  be 
noted  that  all  heights  must  be  taken  in  bare  feet,  as  with  shoes  there  would 
be  an  addition  of  about  one  inch. 

In  the  tables  for  eye  color  there  are  two  separate  lists  presented: 
one  for  the  colors  as  usually  spoken  of  by  the  average  person  and  one  to 
correspond  with  the  more  precise  Bertillon  chart,  that  gives  the  numerous 
grades  as  used  by  the  French  method.  There  will  be  no  confusion  in 
using  either,  as  there  are  no  duplicate  words. 

Aside  from  the  manifest  advantages  of  a  code  for  the  purpose  of  short- 
ening messages,  the  substitution  of  words  for  formulae  is  often  more  exact. 
One  of  the  authors  once  visited  one  of  the  largest  and  best-conducted 
identification  bureaus  in  the  country,  where  he  was  shown  an  accumula- 
tion of  23  records  that  were  filed  under  exactly  the  same  classification 
formula.  At  a  later  visit  the  experiment  was  tried  with  four  of  these 
records  of  substituting  the  code  words  for  the  classification  formula,  and 
the  results  were  all  different;  as  well  differentiated  as  though  filed  under 
different  formulae.  Although  a  classification  formula  alone,  or  the  Ber- 
tillon measurements  alone,  are  not  expected  to  establish  certain  identity 
in  the  absence  of  other  information,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  in 
99  per  cent  of  the  cases  the  Finger  Print  and  Bertillon  codes  will  do  it, 
although  the  actual  prints  are  absent.  This  naturally  supposes  complete 
accuracy  on  the  part  of  the  officer  putting  the  prints  into  the  code,  as 
well  as  on  the  part  of  the  one  who  receives  the  message,  as  the  first  must 
be  absolutely  accurate  in  his  analysis,  and  must  send  the  words  in  the 
correct  order.  In  the  rare  case  where  all  of  the  ten  finger  patterns  are 
arches  there  is  no  chance  for  differentiation  between  two  such  records, 
but  in  such  cases  it  may  reasonably  be  expected  that  among  the  patterns 
there  would  be  some  that  approximate  other  types,  and  in  any  case  the 
Bertillon  measurements  and  the  personal  description  should  form  a  suffi- 
cient differentiation  between  the  two  individuals. 

Still  another  advantage  that  comes  from  the  use  of  the  code  is  the 
ease  by  which  a  worker  learns  the  individual  types  of  patterns  by  associ- 
ating them  with  their  code  words.  It  is  like  giving  names,  rather  than 
descriptions,  to  a  large  number  of  any  similar  objects ;  they  acquire  thereby 
a  certain  individuality,  and  are  readily  remembered  and  recognized  when- 
ever met  with.  The  use  of  a  code  is  too  new  yet  to  prove  this  probable 
worth  of  it,  but  it  will  undoubtedly  be  shown  by  practical  experience. 
The  patterns  shown  in  Chapter  VI  are  designated  by  both  description 
and  code  word,  and  the  reader  will  soon  come  to  know  the  separate  figures 


Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


239 


there  shown  by  their  code  names,  and  think  of  them  afterwards  by  them. 
In  the  code,  which  follows  immediately,  the  types  of  patterns  are 
arranged  alphabetically,  and  the  separate  patterns  under  each  are  arranged, 
so  far  as  possible,  with  the  number  of  ridges  in  numerical  order.  In  such 
lists  the  code  words  are  also  alphabetical,  to  be  more  readily  found  when 
translating  a  message. 

ACCIDENTALS 


INSIDE  TRACING 
Ridges        Code 


OUTSIDE  TRACING 
Ridges        Code 


TRACING  THAT  MEETS 
Ridges  Code 


3 

Alack 

3 

Ancient               None 

Aid 

4 

Aland 

4 

Ancome               1  inside 

Ail 

5 

Alarm 

5 

And                      2  inside 

Aim 

6 

Alas 

6 

Andiron               1  outside 

Air 

7 

Albin 

7 

Anear                   2  outside 

Airy 

8 

Album 

8 

9 

Alcohol 

9 

Anent 

10 

Alcove(Pl.V,  o) 

10 

Angel 

ARCHES 

11 

Ale 

11 

Anger 

Code 

12 
13 

14 

Alga 
Algebra 
Alien 

12 
13 
14 

Angina 
Angle 
Anguish 

Arch 
Arch  app.  Ulna 
Arch  app.  Radial 

Arch  (PI.  I,  a) 
Abed 
Able  (Fig.  57) 

15 

Alive 

15 

Aniline 

16 
17 

Alight 
Align 

16 
17 

Animal 
Animate 

TENTED  ARCHES 
Tent                               Arbor  (PI.  I,  b) 

18 

Alike 

18 

Anise 

Tent  app.  Ulna 

Armor  (PI.  I,  c) 

19 

Alley 

19 

Ankle 

Tent  app.  Radial 

Arrange 

20 

Alloy 

20 

Anneal 

21 

Allure 

21 

Annoy 

INJURED  AND  MISSING,  ETC. 

22 

Ally 

22 

Annual 

Ulnar,  injured  but 

Code 

23 

Almanac 

23 

Anode 

can  be  recog- 

Damaged 

24 

Almond 

24 

Anoint 

nized 

25 

Alms 

25 

Anon 

Radial,  injured 

26 

Aloe 

26 

Ant 

but  can  be  recog- 

Disabled 

27 

Alone 

27 

Antelope 

nized 

28 
29 

Aloof 
Aloud 

28 
29 

Antic 
Anthem 

Whorl,  injured  but    ] 
can  be  recognized  , 

Disfigured 

30 
31 

Alps 
Alpine 

30 
31 

Anthrax 
Antimony 

Arch,  injured  but 
can  be  recognized  J 

Destroyed 

32 

Alter 

32 

Antique 

Amputated 

Absent 

33 

Alto 

33 

Antler 

Cannot  be  classified 

34 

Alum 

34 

Anvil 

easily,  for  any 

•  Nondescript 

35 

Alvine 

35 

Anxious 

reason. 

ALWAYS 

ANY 

If  the  ridges  of  Accidentals  cannot  be  counted,  use  the  code  word 
ALWAYS  for  Inside  Tracings,  and  the  code  word  ANY  for  Outside  Tracings. 
Where  neither  count  nor  tracing  can  be  ascertained,  use  the  code  word 
ACCIDENTAL.  In  such  cases  the  remaining  nine  words  will  find  the  duplicate. 


1MO 


Personal  Identification 


CENTRAL  POCKET  LOOPS  No,   1. 


TYPICAL  CENTRAL         TYPICAL  CENTRAL      APPHOX.  ULNARS        APPBOX.  ULNABS 
POCKETS  POCKETS       »  (INSIDE)  .     (OUTSIDE) 

(INSIDE)  (OUTSIDE) 


Ridges     Code 

Ridges 

Code 

Ridges 

Code 

Ridges       Code 

3 

Cab 

3 

Chain 

3 

Clad 

3         Coach 

4 

Cabin 

4 

Chair 

4 

Claim 

4         Coal 

5 

Cabll  '• 

5 

Chaise 

5 

Clam   ; 

5   '     Coarse 

6 

Cad 

6 

Chalk 

6 

Clamp 

6         Coast 

7 

Cadet 

7 

Chance 

7 

Clan  (PI.  IV, 

e)    7         Coat 

8 

Cage.,. 

8 

Change 

8 

Clang 

8        Cob, 

9 

Cake 

9 

Chant 

9 

Clap     ; 

9         Cock 

10 

Calf 

10 

Chap 

10 

Claret  ' 

10         Cod 

11 

Calico  (PI.  IV,  6)  11 

Char  (PL  IV,  a) 

11 

CU&sh 

11         Cog 

12 

Calif 

12 

Charm 

12 

Clasp 

12         Coil 

13 

Calk 

13 

Chart 

13 

Class 

13    ...  Coin 

14 

Call 

14 

Chase 

14 

Clause 

14         Coke 

15 

Calm 

15 

Chat 

15 

Claw  (PI.  II, 

/)  15         Cold 

16 

Caloric 

16 

Chan 

16 

Clay 

16         Colon 

17 

Calp 

17 

Cheap 

17 

Clean 

17         Color 

18 

Calyx 

18 

Cheek 

.18 

Cigar 

18         Colt 

19 

Cam 

19 

Cherry 

19 

Cleave 

19         Comb 

20 

Came 

20 

Chess 

20 

Cleft 

20  •;.    Comet 

21 

Camel 

21 

Cheval 

21 

Clerk 

21.        Comma 

22 

Cameo 

22 

Chew 

22 

Clew 

22^:        Compose 

23 

Camp 

23 

Chick 

.  23 

Click 

23.        Con 

24 

Camphor 

24 

Chide 

24 

Cliff 

24         Condor 

25 

Can  .  ->» 

25 

Chime 

25 

Clime 

25         Confer 

26 

Canal 

26 

Chip 

26 

Clog 

26         Consult 

27 

Cancer 

27 

Choke 

27 

Cloak 

27         Content 

28 

Candle 

28 

Chop 

28 

Clod 

28         Cook 

29 

Candor 

29 

Chuck 

29 

Clock 

29         Cool 

30 

Candy 

30 

Church 

30 

Close 

30         Coop 

31 

Cane 

31 

Churl 

31 

Clot 

31         Copal 

CANT 

CHURN 

CLOWN 

COPY 

TYPICAL 

CENTRAL 

POCKETS 

APPROX. 

ULNARS 

MEETING 

MEETING 

Ridges 

Code 

Ridges 

Code 

None 

Cease 

-^ 

None 

Cider 

1  inside 

Cedar 

1  inside 

Cigar 

2  inside 

Celery 

2  inside 

Cinder 

1  outside 

Celt 

1  outside 

Circle 

1?  outside 

Cent 

2  outs'^e 

Civil 

Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


241 


CENTRAL  POCKET  LOOPS     (Continued) 


APPROX.  RADIALS 

(INSIDE) 


APPROX.  RADIALS 
(OUTSIDE) 


APPROX.  RADIALS 

(MEETING) 


Ridges 

Code 

Ridges 

Code 

Ridges                    Code 

3 

Crab 

3 

Cube 

None                  Cycle 

4 

Crack 

4 

Cubit 

1  inside              Cygnet   . 

5 

Craft 

5 

Cuckoo 

2  inside              Cymbal 

6 

Crag, 

6 

Cud 

7 

Cramp 

7 

Cudgel 

1  outside         .  Cynic 

8 

Crane 

8 

Cue 

2  outside           Cypress 

9 

Crank 

9 

Cuff 

10 

Crape 

10 

Cull 

11 

Crash 

11 

Culm 

12 

Crate 

12 

Cumber 

13 

Crave 

13 

Cup 

14 

Craw 

14 

Cupid 

15 

Crawl 

15 

Curb 

16 

Craze 

16 

Cure 

._ 

17 

Creak 

17 

Curfew 

18 

Cream 

18 

Curl 

19 

Crease 

19 

Currant 

20 

Credit 

20 

Curry 

21 

Creed 

21 

Curse 

22 

Creep 

22 

Curt 

23 

Crest 

23 

Curtain 

24 

Crib 

24 

Curve 

25 

Crisp 

25 

Cushion 

26 

Crock 

26 

Custard 

27 

Crops 

27 

Custom 

28 

Cross 

28 

Cut 

29 

Crow 

29 

Cute 

. 

30 

Crude 

30 

Cutlass 

31 

Crumb 

31 

Cutlet 

CRUSH 

CUTWORM 

If  the  ridges  of  a  Central  Pocket  cannot  be  counted,  use  the  word 
CAN'T  for  ordinary  Central  Pockets,  with  inside  tracing,  and  the  word 
CHURN  if  the  tracing  is  outside.  If  the  Central  Pocket  approximates  an 
Ulnar  Loop  with  the  tracing  inside,  use  the  word  CLOWN,  and  the  word 
COPY  if  the  tracing  is  outside.  If  the  Central  Pocket  approximates  a 
Radial  Loop  with  the  tracing  inside,  use  the  word  CRUSH,  and  the  word 
CUTWORM  if  the  tracing  is  outside.  If  neither  counting  nor  tracing  can 
be  ascertained,  use  the  code  word  CENTRAL;  the  remaining  nine  code  words 
will  find  the  duplicate. 


•242 


Personal  Identification 


LATERAL  POCKET  LOOPS 


INSIDE 


MEETING 


OUTSIDE 


Ridges 

Code 

Ridges                  Code 

Ridges 

Code 

3 

Label 

None               Lead 

3 

Lick 

4 

Labor 

1  inside            Leak 

4 

Lid 

5 

Lace 

2  inside           Level 

5 

Life 

6 

Laconic 

6 

Lift 

7 

Lad 

1  outside         Lever 

7 

Light 

8 

Ladder 

2  outside         Lewd 

8 

Lilac 

9 

Lade 

9 

Lily 

10 

Ladle 

10 

Limb 

11 

Lady  (PI.  V,  d) 

11 

Limber 

12 

Lag 

12 

Limbo 

13 

Lake 

13 

Lime  (PI.  V.  b) 

14 

Lamb 

14 

Limit 

15 

Lame 

15 

Limp 

16 

Lance 

16 

Line 

17 

Land 

17 

Link 

18 

Lane 

18 

Lint 

19 

Lank 

19 

Lip 

20 

Lap 

20 

Liquid 

21 

Lapel 

21 

Lisp 

22 

Lapse 

22 

Listed 

23 

Lard 

23 

Live 

24 

Lark 

24 

Liver 

25 

Lash 

25 

Load 

26 

Lass 

26 

Loam 

27 

Last 

27 

Local 

28 

Latch 

28 

Lock 

29 

Late 

29 

Locust 

30 

Lath 

30 

Lodge 

31 

Laud 

31 

Loft 

32 

Laugh 

32 

Log 

33 

Launch 

33 

Logic 

34 

Laurel 

34 

Loin 

35 

Lava 

35 

Long 

6 

Lavish 

36 

Look 

37 

Lawn 

37 

Lope 

38 

Lay 

38 

Lord 

39 

Layman 

39 

Lore 

LAZE 

LOST 

If  the  ridges  of  Lateral  Pockets  cannot  be  counted,  use  the  word  LAZE 
in  the  case  of  Inside  Lateral  Pockets;  and  the  word  LOST  in  the  case  of 
Outside  Lateral  Pockets.  If  neither  counting  nor  tracing  can  be  deter- 
mined, use  the  word  LATERAL;  the  remaining  nine  code  words  will  find  the 
duplicate. 


Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


243 


RADIAL  LOOPS 

TYPICAL  RADIALS 
Ridges      Code 

INVADED  RADIALS 
Ridges     Code 

APPROX.  C.  P. 
Ridges       Code 

APPROX.  ARCHES 
Ridges       Code 

I 

Rabid 

I 

Rub 

1         Reach 

1         Rib  (PI.  I,  d) 

2 

Race 

2 

Rubble 

2         Read 

2         Rice 

3 

Rack 

3 

Rubbish 

3         Real 

3         Rich 

4 

Racket 

4 

Rubicon 

4         Reap 

4         Ride 

5 

Racy 

5 

Rubify 

5         Rear 

5         Rife 

6 

Radical 

6 

Rubric 

6         Rebel 

6         Rig 

7 

Radish 

7 

Ruby 

7         Reck 

7         Rill 

8 

Raffle 

8 

Ruck 

8         Recoil 

8         Rind 

9 

Raft 

9 

Rud 

9         Record 

9         Ripe 

10 

Rag 

10 

Rudder 

10         Rectify 

10         Rise 

11 

Rage 

11 

Ruddle 

11         Reduce 

11         Risk 

12 

Ragged 

12 

Ruddock 

12         Reed 

12         Risking 

13 

Raging 

13 

Ruddy 

13         Reef 

13         Rival 

14 

Raid 

14 

Rude 

14         Reek 

14         Rive 

15 

Rail 

15 

Rue 

15         Reel 

15         River 

16 

Rain 

16 

Ruff 

16         Reeve 

16         Rivet 

17 

Raise 

17 

Ruffle 

17         Refer 

18 

Rake 

18 

Rufous 

18         Refit 

19 

Rally 

19 

Rug 

19         Refuse 

20 

Ram 

20 

Rugin 

20         Relax 

21 

Ramble 

21 

Ruin 

21         Remit 

22 

Ramp 

22 

Ruminate 

22         Remove 

00 

T>                A 

OO 

TJ       • 

OQ              PpnH 

«O 

24 

iv  ;i  ni  n  M  1 
Ran 

AfO 

24 

jvuinous 
Rule 

—  •>            ixt  ini 

24         Renew 

APPROX.  TENTS 

25 

Rancid 

25 

Ruler 

25         Rent 

Ridges       Code 

26 

Random 

26 

Ruly 

26         Repel 

27 

Range 

27 

Rum 

27         Rescue 

1          Road 

28 

Rank 

28 

Rumor 

28         Reset 

2         Roam 

29 

Ransom 

29 

Rump 

29         Resin 

3         Roar 

30 

Rant 

30 

Run 

30         Resort 

4         Roast 

31 

Rap 

31 

Rung 

31         Rest 

5         Robe 

32 

Rapid 

32 

Runt 

32         Revel 

6         Robin 

33 

Rare 

33 

Rupee 

33         Revenge 

7         Rock 

34 

Rash 

34 

Rural 

34         Reverb 

8         Rod 

35 

Rat 

35 

Ruse 

35         Revere 

9         Roe 

36 

Rate 

36 

Russ 

36         Reverse 

10         Roll 

37 

Ratio 

37 

Rust 

37         Revert 

1  1         Romp 

38 

Rave 

38 

Rustic 

38         Review 

12         Roof 

39 

Ravel 

39 

Rut 

39         Revile 

13         Room 

40 

Raw 

40 

Ruth 

40         Revise 

14         Root 

41 

Raze 

41 

Rutil 

41         Revive 

15         Rope 

42 

Ra/or 

42 

Rutter 

42         Revoke 

16         Rose 

If  the  ridges  of  Radial  Loops  cannot  be  counted  for  any  reason,  use 
the  word  RADIAL;   the  remaining  nine  code  words  will  find  the  duplicate. 


244 


Personal  Identification 


TWIN-LOOPS 


INSIDE 

MEETING 

OUTSIDE 

Ridges 

Code 

Ridges                    Code 

Ridges 

Code 

3 

Tab 

None                  Than 

3 

Trace 

4 

Tabby 

4 

Track  (PL  V,  e) 

5 

Table 

1  inside             Theme 

5 

Trade 

6 

Tabor 

2  inside              There 

6 

Traffic 

7 

Tack 

7 

Trail 

8 

Tail 

1  outside           Thick 

8 

Tram 

9 

Taint 

2  outside           Thing 

9 

Trance 

10 

Take 

10 

Trap 

11 

Talk 

11 

Trash 

12 

Tame 

12 

Travel  " 

13 

Tang 

13 

Tray 

14 

Tape 

14 

Tread 

15 

"  Taper 

15 

Treat:- 

16 

Tar 

16 

Treble  r 

17 

Tatdy 

•    .  .•: 

17 

Tree  •'••'' 

18 

Tart 

18 

Tremor 

19 

Task 

•  •••'       19 

Trench 

20 

Taste 

20 

Tribe 

21 

Tasty 

21 

Trick 

22 

Taunt 

22 

:Trig 

23 

Taut 

23 

.Trill 

24 

Tea 

24 

Trim     ' 

25 

Teach 

i    . 

25 

Trio 

26 

Team 

26 

Trip 

27 

Tear 

27 

Tripte>f 

28 

Tease 

.      28" 

Tripod'  f 

29 

Teat 

29 

Trite     '          * 

30 

Teem 

30 

Trod                J'i 

31 

Teeth 

, 

31 

Troop 

32 

Tell 

'" 

32 

Trophy 

33 

Temper 

33 

Tropic 

34 

Tempest 

34 

Trot 

35 

Temple 

35 

Troth 

36 

Tempt 

36 

Trough 

37 

Tenant 

37 

Trowel 

38 

Tend 

' 

38 

Truce 

39 

Tender 

' 

39 

Truck 

TENURE 

TRUE 

If  the  ridges  of  Twin-Loops  cannot  be  counted,  use  the  word  TENURE 
in  the  case  of  Inside  Twin-Loops;  and  the  word  TRUE  in  the  case  of  Out- 
side Twin-Loops.  Where  neither  the  count  nor  tracing  can  be  ascertained, 
use  the  code  word  TWIN;  the  remaining  nine  words  will  find  the  duplicate. 


Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


245 


ULNAR  LOOPS 


TYPICAL  ULNARS 

INVADED  ULNARS 

APPROX.  C.  P. 

APPROX.  ARCHES 

Ridges 

Code 

Ridges             Code 

Ridges              Code 

Ridges       Code 

1 

Unable 

I              Us 

1               Upbear 

1     Ulans 

2 

Unapt 

2               Usable 

2               Upcast 

2     Ulcer 

3 

Unarm 

3              Usage 

3               Uphill 

3     Ulcerated 

4 

Unbar 

4               Usance 

4               Uphold 

4     Ulcered 

5 

Unbend 

5               Use 

5               Upland 

5     Ulema 

6(F1.L/)  Uncap 

6               Used 

6(Pl.IW)Upled 

6     Uletree 

7 

Uncivil 

7               Useful 

7              Uplift 

7     Ullage 

8 

Unclad 

8               Useless 

8              Uplook 

8     Ulmin 

9 

Unclasp 

9               User 

9               Upmost 

9     Ulnar 

10 

Unclean 

10               Usher 

10              Upon 

10     Ulterior 

11 

Unclose 

11               Ushered 

11               Upper 

11     Ultimate 

12 

Uncouple 

12               Ustion 

12               Uppish 

12     Ultimo 

13 

Uncover 

13               Usual 

13               Upraise 

13     Ultra 

14 

Uncut 

14               Usually 

14(Pl.II,c)Uprear 

14     Ultraism 

15 

Under 

15               Usufruct 

15(Pl.II,e)Upright 

15     Ultraist 

16(P1.1 

.,e)  Under  go 

16(PUI,a)Usure 

16               Uprise 

16     Ululate 

17 

Undone 

17(Pl.IU)Usurer 

17               Uproar 

18 

Uneasy(Fg.89) 

18                Usurious 

18               Uproot 

19 

Unfair 

19        .        Usurp 

19               Uprouse 

20 

Unfit 

20               Usurped 

20               Upset 

21 

Unflawed 

21                Usurper 

21               Upshot 

22 

Unfold 

22                Usurping 

22                Upspring 

23 

Unhurt 

23               Usury 

23               Upstand 

24 

Union 

24               Utensil 

24               Upstart 

APPROX.  TENTS 

25 

Unite 

25               Utile 

25               Upstay 

Ridges      Code 

26 

Unkind 

26                Utility 

26               Upswarm 

27 

Unlace 

27    <•           Utilize 

27               Uptake 

I     Umbel 

28 

Unlaid 

28               Utilized 

28               Uptear 

2     Umbellar 

29 

Unload 

29               Utis 

29               Upturn 

3     Umbellate 

30 

Unlock 

30               Utmost 

30               Upwind 

4     Umber 

31 

Unman 

31               Utopia 

31               Uranus 

5     Umbered 

32 

Unmove 

32               Utopian 

32               Urbane 

6     Umbilical 

33 

Unpack 

33               Utricle 

33               Urchin 

7     Umbles 

34 

Unpaid 

34               Utter 

34               Urge 

8     Umbo 

35 

Unravel 

35               Utterable 

35               Urgent 

9  "  Umbonate 

36 

Unreal 

36               Utterance 

36               Urim 

10     Umbonated 

37 

Unrip 

37               Uttered 

37               Urn 

11     Umbra 

38 

Unroot 

38               Uttermost 

38               Urry 

12     Umbrage 

39 

Unruly 

39               Uveous 

39               Ursa 

13     Umbrella 

40 

Unsafe 

40               Uvula 

40               Ursine 

14     Umbrose 

41 

Unsaid 

41               Uxorious 

41               Ursuline 

15     Umpirage 

42 

Unship 

42               Uxoriously 

42                Urus. 

16     Umpire 

If  the  ridges  of  Ulnar  Loops  cannot  be  counted  for  any  reason,  use 
the  word  ULNAR;  the  remaining  nine  code  words  will  find  the  duplicate. 


246 


Personal  Identification 


WHORLS 


INSIDE 

MEETING 

OUTSIDE 

Ridges 

Code 

Ridges                 Code 

Ridges 

Code 

3(P1. 

III,a)VVabble 

None  (PI.  Ill*)  Weak 

3 

Whale 

4 

Wad 

4 

Whame 

5 
6 

7 

Wade 
Wader 
Water 

1  in.  (PI.  III.  d)  Web 
2  in.                      Wedge 

5 
6 

7 

Wharf  / 
What    1 
Wheat 

PI.  Ill,/) 
andlVJf 

8 
9 

Waffle 
Waft 

1  outside              Weed 
2  outside              West 

sf  PI.  in, 

9\  and  IV 

•I    Wheel 
,e)     Wheeze 

10 

Wag 

10 

Whelm 

11 

Wage 

11 

Whelp 

12 

Wager 

• 

12 

When 

13 

Wagon 

13 

Where 

14 

Waif 

14 

Wherry 

15 

Wail 

15 

Whet 

16 

Wain 

16 

Whey 

17 

Wair 

17 

Which 

18 

Waist 

18 

Whiff 

19 

Wait 

19 

Whig 

20 

Waiter 

20 

While 

21 

Wake 

21 

Whim 

22 

Waken 

22 

Whip 

23 

Wale 

23 

Whisk 

24 

Walk 

24 

Whistle 

25 

Wall 

25 

Whiting 

26 

Wallet 

26 

Whole 

27 

Wallow 

27 

Wick 

28 

Walnut 

28 

Wide 

29 

Walrus 

29 

Widow 

30 

Waltz 

30 

Width 

31 

Wan 

31 

Wield 

32 

Wand 

32 

Wife 

33 

Wane 

33 

Wild 

34 

Want 

34 

Will 

35 

Wanton 

35 

Willow 

36 

Wapiti 

36 

Wilt 

37 

Ward 

37 

Wind 

38 

Warder 

38 

Wink 

39 

Warm 

39 

Wipe 

WARP 

WISE 

If  the  ridges  of  the  whorls  included  in  the  above  table  cannot  be 
counted,  use  the  word  WARP  for  Inside  Whorls;  and  the  word  WISE  if  the 
tracing  is  outside.  If  neither  tracing  nor  counting  can  be  determined, 
use  the  word  WHORL;  the  remaining  nine  code  words  will  find  the  duplicate. 


Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


247 


ELONGATED  WHORLS 


INSIDE 


INSDE 


O'J    SIDE 


hidges 

Code 

Ridges           Code 

Ridges 

Code 

3 

Woad 

36           Wot 

8 

Wrathy 

4 

Woden 

37           Would 

9 

Wrawe 

5 

Woe 

38           Wound 

10 

Wreak 

6 

Woeful 

39            Wounded 

11 

Wreath 

7 

Wolf 

WOVE 

12 

Wreathing 

8 

Wolfish 

13 

Wreck 

9 

Woman 

MEETING 

14 

Wrecker 

in 

A\7rtw*Ka4- 

15 

Wreckful 

•V 

11 

v\  omDdu 
Won 

Ridges                     Code 

16 

Wren 

12 

Wone 

None                 Wraith 

17 

Wrench 

13 

Wonder 

1  inside            Wrangle 

18 

Wrest 

14 

Wondrous 

2  inside            Wrangler 

19 

Wrestle 

15 

Wont 

20 

Wretch 

16 

Word 

1  outside         Wranglesome 

21 

Wretched 

17 

Wordy 

2  outside         Wrangling 

22 

Wretchedly 

18 

Wore 

23 

Wrig 

19 

Work 

24 

Wriggle 

20 

Workbag 

25 

Wriggler 

21 

World 

26 

Wring 

22 

Worldly 

27 

Wringer 

23 

Worm 

28 

Wrinkle 

24 

Wormed 

29 

Wrinkled 

25 

Worn 

30 

Writ 

26 

Wornout 

31 

Writer 

27 

Wornil 

32 

Writhe 

28 

Worral 

OUTSIDE 

33 

Writing 

29 

VVorrv 

34 

Written 

30 

T  T  \Ji  1    If 

Worse 

Ridges                Code 

35 

Wrizzled 

31 

Worship 

3           Wrap  (PI.  IV,  d) 

36 

Wrong 

32 

Worst 

4            Wrapper 

37 

Wrote 

33 

Wort 

5            Wrasse 

38 

Wroth 

34 

Worth 

6            Wrath 

39 

Wrought 

35 

Worthy 

7            Wrathful 

WRYNECK 

Whorls  having  vertical  diameters  in  their  centers,  between  two  and 
three  times  greater  than  their  horizontal  diameters,  may  be  considered 
Elongated  Whorls  and  the  above  special  table  is  allotted  for  such.  Measur- 
ing will  not  be  necessary  to  establish  the  relative  difference  between  the 
horizontal  and  vertical  diameters;  the  judgment  of  the  unaided  eye  will 
answer  all  requirements.  Where  the  ridges  of  the  Elongated  Whorls 
cannot  be  counted,  use  the  word  WOVE  if  the  tracing  is  inside;  and  the 
word  WRYNECK  if  the  tracing  is  outside.  If  neither  tracing  nor  counting 
can  be  determined,  use  the  word  WHORL;  the  remaining  nine  code  words 
will  find  the  duplicate. 


2  is 


Personal  Identification 


AGE 

WEIGHT 

Pounds 

320    Owe 

15 

Yacht 

49 

Yearly 

75 

Oaf 

325     Owner 

16 

Yachting 

50 

Yearn 

80 

Oak 

330     Ox 

17 

Yager 

51 

Yeast 

85 

Oar 

335     Oxyd 

18 

Yahoo 

52 

Yeasty 

90 

Oat 

340     Oxygen 

19 

Yak 

53 

Yelk 

95 

Obdure 

345     Oyster 

20 

Yam 

54 

Yelp 

100 

Obey 

350     Ozone 

21 

Yanolite 

55 

Yenite 

105 

Object 

22 

Yap 

56 

Yeoman 

110 

Oblate 

23 

Yapon 

.    57 

Yeomanry 

115 

Oblige 

24 

Yard 

58 

Yerk 

120 

Obscure 

25 

Yardarm 

59 

Yester 

125 

Observe 

26 

Yardland 

60 

Yet 

130 

Obtain 

27 

Yardstick 

61 

Yfere 

135 

Obtest 

28 

Yare 

62 

Yeven 

,     140 

Obtrude 

29 

Yarely 

63 

Yew 

145 

Obtuse 

30 

Yarn 

64 

Yex              ft 

150 

Occult 

31 

Yarnut 

.  65 

Yield 

155 

Occur 

32 

Yarr 

66 

Yojan 

160 

Ocean 

"•'                 -\  , 

33 

Yarrish. 

67 

Yoke 

165 

Octave 

,  ':  '                •-,  , 

34 

Yarrow 

68   , 

Yold 

170 

Odd 

35 

Yataghan 

.69    i 

Yonder 

175 

Odor 

•'v                •   . 

36 

Yate 

70   i 

Yonker 

180 

Offer 

37 

Yaup 

71 

Younker 

185 

Ogle 

•  :  /V                     •     . 

38 

Yaw 

72 

Your 

190 

Oily 

V 

39 

Yawl 

73 

Ypight 

195 

Oleon 

'•i 

40 

Yawn 

74 

Yttria 

200 

Olive 

41 

Yawned 

75 

Yuck 

205 

Omen    , 

42 

Yaws 

76 

Yufts 

210 

Once 

•  • 

43 

Ycled 

77 

Yug 

215 

Onion 

44 

Yclept 

78 

Yulan 

220 

Onset 

45 

Ydrad 

79   ; 

Yule 

225 

Onyx 

46 

Yea 

•  80   ; 

Yux 

230 

Opal 

.i'. 

47 

Year 

?.> 

235 

Open 

48 

Yearning 

•• 

240 

Oppose 

.  y* 

245 

Optic 

:''.' 

250 

Orator 

255 

Orbit 

260 
265 

Order 
Organ 

'•    .1 

270 

Orlop 

1         ''-.-•! 

275 

Ounce 

280 

Oust 

/    :               •    . 

285 

Outbid 

"' 

290 

Outset 

•   i            «.i 

300 

Oval 

.  .    •-" 

*  —  - 

305 

Over 

.    '.    .         ., 

•*.',•  — 

310 

Overt 

•     •  •  '        ,  : 

315 

Ovum 

•          •  :il    I            i, 

Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


249 


EYES,  ENGLISH 

DESCRIPTION                EYES,  BY  THE  BERTILLON  CHART  IN  COLORS 

CLASS  I,  UNPIGMENTED 

Code 

Code                     Code 

Code 

Light  Blue, 

Idea 

He                         Ileum 

Ilex 

Azure  Blue, 

Ideal 

Iliac                     Iliad 

Ilk 

Violet  Blue, 
Slate  Blue, 
Dark  Blue, 

Idealize 
Ideate 
Idem 

111                         Illapse 

Illbred 

Brown  and  Blue, 

Ides 

CLASS    II,    PlGMENTED    YELLOW 

Light  Slate, 
Greenish  Slate, 

Idest 
Idiom 

Image                  Imbead 
Immet                 Immure 

Immesh 
Imp 

Medium  Slate, 
Brown  and  Slate, 
Yellowish  Slate, 

Idiot 
Idleness 
Idler 

Impact                Impair 

Impale 

CLASS    III,    PlGMENTED 

QRA-NGE 

Light  Brown, 

Idly 

;  ~;~: 

Medium  Brown, 

Idol 

Inarch                  Inbreed 

Inca 

Dark  Brown, 

Idolatry 

Incase                  Incask 

Incense 

Medium  Maroon, 
Greenish  Maroon, 

Idolism 
Idolize 

Incide                  Incise 

Incite 

Dark  Maroon, 

Idolous 

CLASS    IV,    PlGMENTED 

BROWN 

BLACK, 

Idyllic 

u     Indent                 Index 

India 

Indigo                  Indirect 

'Inditch 

.?»!*« 

Induce                 Induct 

Indulge 

CLASS    V,    PlGMENTED    I 

MAROON" 

Inf  ame                 Infant 

Infect 

Infer                     Infest 

Infidel 

Infinite                Infirm 

Inflame 

CLASSES    VI    AND    VII, 

PlGMENTED  GREENISH 

;      MAROON 

Inscribe               Insect 

Inserve 

Insight                 Insipid 

Insist 

Insnare                Inspect 

Inspire 

250 


Personal  Identification 


NOSE 

Ridge 

Base 

Code 

Dimensions 

Code 

(Concave), 

(Elevated), 

Nab 

Short  and  Narrow, 

Nome 

Elevated, 

Nabob 

Short  and  Medium, 

Nominal 

Elevated, 

Nacre 

Short  and  Broad, 

Nominee 

Horizontal, 

Nail 

Medium  and  Narrow, 

Nonage 

Depressed, 

Naked 

Medium  and  Medium, 

None 

Depressed. 

Nape 

Medium  and  Broad, 

Noon 

Concave, 

(Elevated), 

Naphtha 

Long  and  Narrow, 

Nope 

Elevated, 

Napkin 

Long  and  Medium, 

Normal 

Elevated, 

Nappal 

Long  and  Broad, 

Notch 

Horizontal, 
Depressed, 

Nard 
Narwhal 

COLOR  OF  HAIR 

Depressed. 

Nasal 

Code 

Concave, 

(Elevated), 

Natal 

Flaxen, 

Jackal 

""^~^~"^^ 

Elevated, 

Nation 

Light  Blonde, 

Jacket 

Elevated, 

Native 

Medium  Blonde, 

Jaconet 

Dark  Blonde, 

Jade 

Horizontal, 
Depressed, 

Dep-essed, 

Natron 
Natty 
Nature 

Blonde  and  Gray  mixed, 
Blonde  and  Bald, 
Blonde,  Gray  and  Bald 

Jaggy 

Jalap 
Jamb 

Rectilinear, 

(Elevated), 
Elevated, 
Elevated. 

Neap 
Near 
Needle 

Light  Sandy, 
Medium  Sandy, 
Dark  Sandy, 

Jane 
Jape 
Jar 

Horizontal, 

Neigh 

Sandy  and  Gray  mixed, 

Jargon 

Depressed, 

Nerve 

Sandy  and  Bald, 

Jasper 

Depre  sed, 

Nest 

Sandy,  Gray  and  Bald, 

Jaunce 

(Convex), 

(Elevated), 

Niantic 

Light  Red, 

Jaunt 

Elevated, 

Nib 

Mahogany  Red, 

Javel 

Elevated, 

Nibble 

Chestnut  Red, 

Jay 

Horizontal, 

Nice 

Red  and  Gray  mixed, 

Jean 

Depressed, 
Depressed, 

Nick 
Nickel 

Red  and  Bald, 
Red,  Gray  and  Bald, 

Jeer 
Jelly 

Convex, 

(Elevated), 

Niece 

Light  Chestnut, 

Jerk 

Elevated, 

Night 

Medium  Chestnut, 

Jersey 

Elevated, 

Nimbus 

Dark  Chestnut, 

Jest 

—  ^—  —  ^—  ^^— 

Chestnut  and  Gray  mixed, 

Jet 

Horizontal, 

Nip 

Chestnut  and  Bald, 

Jib 

Depressed, 

Nipple 

Chestnut,  Gray  and  Bald, 

Jill 

Depressed, 

Nisan 

r^Viootnut   Tllafk 

Job 

Convex, 

(Elevated), 

Niter 

*    in  >i  nui     iiiiit  r\. 

Chestnut,  Black  and  Gray, 

Jocose 

Elevated, 

Nitid 

Chestnut,  Black  and  Bald, 

Joint 

E'evated, 

Nitrate 

Chestnut,  Black,  Gray  and 

Bald,    Joist 

Horizontal. 

Nitric 

BLACK, 

Joke 

Depressed, 

Nitrous 

Black  and  Gray  mixed, 

Jole 

Depressed. 

Nittal 

Black  and  Bald, 

Jolly 

Humped, 

Nival 

Black,  Gray  and  Bald, 

Jolt 

Been  broken. 

Nizam 

Entirely  Bald, 

Jot 

Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


251 


HEAD  LENGTH 


HEAD  BREADTH 


LEFT  MIDDLE  FINGER 


16.5 

Habit 

13.1 

Heal 

9.0 

Dab 

16.6 

Habitual 

13.2 

Heam 

9.1 

Dabble 

16.7 

Hack 

13.3 

Heap 

9.2 

Dace 

16.8 

Hackle 

13.4 

Heaper 

9.3 

Daddy 

16.9 

Hackney 

13.5 

Hear 

9.4 

Dado 

17.0 

Haddock 

13.6 

Heard 

9.5 

Daft 

17.1 

.    Hades 

13.7 

Hearse 

9.6 

Dag 

17.2 

Haft 

13.8 

Heart 

9.7 

Dagger 

17.3 

Hag 

13.9 

Hearten 

9.8 

Daily 

17.4 

Haggard 

14.0 

Hearth 

9.9 

Dainty 

17.5 

Hail 

14.1 

Hearty 

10.0 

Dairy 

17.6 

Hake 

14.2 

Heat 

10.1 

Daisy 

17.7 

Hakot 

14.3 

Heated 

10.2 

Dally 

17.8 

Halberd 

14.4 

Heath 

10.3 

Dam 

17.9 

Half 

14.5 

Heathen 

10.4 

Damask 

18.0 

Halibut 

14.6 

Heather 

10.5 

Dame 

18.1 

Hall 

14.7 

Heave 

10.6 

Damp 

18.2 

Halyard 

14.8 

Heaven 

10.7 

Damsel 

18.3 

Hallow 

14.9 

Heaves 

10.8 

Dan 

18.4 

Halt 

15.0 

Heavy 

10.9 

Dance 

18.5 

Halter 

15.1 

Heazy 

11.0 

Dander 

18.6 

Ham 

15.2 

Hebe" 

11.1 

Dandy 

18.7 

Hames 

15.3 

Hebete 

11.2 

Dane 

18.8 

Hamlet 

15.4 

Hecatomb 

11.3 

Danger 

18.9 

Hammer 

15.5 

Heckle 

11.4 

Dank 

19.0 

Hammock 

15.6 

Hector 

11.5 

Dapple 

19.1 

Hamper 

15.7 

Hedge 

11.6 

Dard 

19.2 

Handle 

15.8 

Heed 

11.7 

Dare 

19.3 

Handsaw 

15.9 

Heel 

11.8 

Darken 

19.4 

Handy 

16.0 

Heifer 

11.9 

Darling 

19.5 

Hant 

16.1 

Heir 

12.0 

Darn 

19.6 

Happen 

16.2 

Heem 

12.1 

Dart 

19.7 

Harbor 

16.3 

Henbane 

12.2 

Dash 

19.8 

Hard 

16.4 

Hepar 

12.3 

Dastard 

19.9 

Hardy 

16.5 

Herald 

12.4 

Date 

20.0 

Harem 

16.6 

Herb 

12.5 

Dative 

20.1 

Harm 

16.7 

Herby 

12.6 

Datum 

20.2 

Harmony 

16.8 

Heresy 

12.7 

Daub 

20.3 

Harness 

16.9 

Hermit 

12.8 

Daunt 

20.4 

Harp 

17.0 

Hero 

12.9 

Dauphin 

20.5 

Harpy 

17.1 

Heron 

13.0 

Davit 

20.6 

Harrow 

17.2 

Herring 

13.1 

Daw 

20.7 

Harsh 

17.3 

Herse 

13.2 

Dawdle 

20.8 

Harvest 

13.3 

Dawk 

20.9 

Hasp 

13.4 

Dawn 

21.0 

Hat 

13.5 

Day 

21.1 

Hatch 

13.6 

Daybreak 

21.2 

Hatchet 

13.7 

Daty  dream 

21.3 

Hate 

13.8 

Dayfly 

21.4 

Haunt 

13.9 

Daze 

14  0 

Dazzle 

Personal  Identification 


LENGTH  OF  LEFT  FOOT 


22.0 

Fable 

25.2 

Fan 

28.7 

Felt 

22.1 

Fabric 

25.3 

Fanatic 

28.8 

Fence 

22.2 
22.3 
22.4 
22.5 

Fabulous 
Facade 
Facet 
Facile 

^       25.4 
25.5 
25.6 
25.  T 

Fancy  " 

r:"Fang    ' 
Fantasy 
'  '  Farce 

28.9 
29.0 
29.1 
29.2 

Fend 
Ferment 
Fern 
Ferret 

22.6 

22.7 

Facility 
Fact 

25.8 
25.9 

Fardel 
Fare 

29.3 
29.4 

Ferry 
Fertile 

22.8 

Faction 

26.0 

Farina 

29.'5 

Fervent 

22.9 

Factor 

26.1 

Farm 

29.6 

Festive 

23.0 
23.1 

Faculty 
Fade 

26.2 
26.3 

Farrier 
Farrow 

29.7 
29.8 

Fetch 
Fetid 

23.2 
23.3 
23.4 

Fag 
Fagot 
Fail 

26.4 
26.5 
26.6 

Fashion 
Fast 
Fat 

29.9 
30.0 
30.1   . 

Feud 
Fever 
Fiat 

23.5 

Failure 

26.7 

Fatal 

30.2 

Fibrin 

23.6 

Fain 

26.8 

Fate 

30.3 

Fiddle 

23.7 
23.8 
23.9 
24.0 
24.1 

Faint 
Fair 
Fairy 
Faith 
Fake 

26.9 
27.0 
27.1 
27.2 
27.3 

Fathom 
Fatigue 
Fault 
Faun 
Fauna 

30.4 
30.5 
30.6 
30.7 

30:8 

Fidget 
Field 
Fig 
Fight 
File 

24.2 

Falcon 

27.4 

Faust 

30.9 

Fill 

24.3 

Fall 

27.5 

Favor 

31.0 

Film 

24.4 

Fallax 

27.6 

Favose 

31.1 

Filter 

24.5 

Fallow 

27.7 

Faxed 

31.2 

Filth 

24.6 

24.7 

False 
Falter 

27.8   : 

27.9 

Fay 
Fear 

31.3 
31.4 

Fin 
Final 

24.8 

Fame 

28.0 

Feast 

31.5 

Fire- 

24.9 
25.0 

Family 
Famish 

28.1 
28.2 

Feather 
Feeble 

31.6 

31.7 

Firkin 
Firm 

25.1 

Famous 

28.3 

Feed 

31.8 

Fish 

28.4 
28.5 

Feign 
Feline 

31.9 
32.0 

Fit 
Fix 

28.6 

Fell 

Finger':  Prints:    the  Code 


•253 


LENGTH  OF  LEFT  FOREARM 


39.6 

Gab                                44.6 

.Gay 

49.7 

Gland 

39.7 

Gabble 

44.7 

Gaze 

49.8 

Glare 

39.8 

Gabel 

44.8 

Gazori 

i       49.9 

Glass 

39.9 

'  'Gabion 

44.9 

Gear 

;       50.0 

Glave 

40.0 

Gable 

45.0 

Gelt 

50.1 

Glaze 

40.1 

Gaby 

'       45.1  * 

Gelid 

50.2 

Gleamr    '' 

40.2 

Gad 

45.2 

Gemel 

50.3 

Glebe  '; 

40.3 

Gadoid 

45.3 

Gemote 

50.4 

•^Gl& 

40.4 

Gaelic 

45.4 

Gender 

1       50.5 

G$fh 

40.5 

Gaff 

45.5 

'Genesis 

;       50.6 

GJib 

40.6 

Gag 

45.6 

Genet 

50.7 

GlMe 

40.7 

Gage 

45.7 

Geneva 

50.8 

Glim 

40.8 

Gager 

45.8 

Genial 

50.9 

Glisten 

40.9 

Gaily 

45.9 

Genio 

51.0 

Gloam 

41.0 

Gain 

46.0 

Genius 

51.1 

GlOat 

41.1 

Gait 

46.1 

Gentle 

51.2 

Globe 

41.2 

Galaxy 

46.2 

Genuine 

;      51.3 

Gloom 

41.3 

Gale 

46.3 

Genus 

51.4 

Glory 

41.4 

Galena 

46.4 

Geode 

51.5 

Gloss 

41.5 

Gall 

46.5 

Gerah 

51.6 

Glove 

41.6 

Galley 

46.6 

Germ 

51.7 

Glow 

41.7 

Gallon 

46.7 

Gerund 

51.8 

Glue    l 

41.8 

Gallop 

46.8 

Gest 

51.9 

Glut 

41.9 

Galore 

46.9 

-Get 

52.0 

Gluten 

42.0 

Galne 

47.0 

''-Ghost 

52.1 

Gnaw 

42.1 

Gammon 

47.1 

Giant 

52.2 

Goad 

42.2 

Gander 

47.2 

Gibe 

52.3 

Goal 

42.3 

Gang 

47.3 

Giddy 

52.4 

Goat 

42.4 

Gangway 

47.4 

Gift 

52.5 

Goblet 

42.5 

Gannet 

47.5 

Gig 

52.6 

Goggle 

42.6 

Gape 

47.6 

Giggle 

52.7 

Gold 

42.7 

Gar 

47.7 

Gild 

52.8 

Gong 

42.8 

Garden 

47.8 

Gill 

52.9 

Good 

42.9 

Gargle 

47.9 

Gilt 

53.0 

Goose 

43.0 

Garland 

48.0 

Gimbal 

53.1 

Gopher 

4^3.1 

Garment 

48.1 

Gimlet 

53.2 

Gore 

43.2 

Garner 

48.2 

Gimp 

;                53.3 

Go'rge 

43.3 

Garret 

48.3 

Gin 

53.4 

Gorse 

43.4 

Garter 

48.4 

Ginger 

53.5 

Gospel 

43.5 

Garth 

48.5 

Ginseng 

53.6 

Gossip 

43.6 

Gas 

48.6 

Gipsy 

53.7 

Gothic 

43.7 

Gaskins 

48.7 

Giraffe 

53.8 

Gourd 

43.8 

Gasp 

48.8 

Gird 

53.9 

Govern 

43.9 

Gat 

48.9 

Girth 

54.0 

Gown 

44.0 

Gather 

49.0 

Give 

54.1 

Grab 

44.1 

Gaud 

49.1 

Gizzard 

54.2 

Grace 

44.2 

Gauge 

49.2 

Glacis 

54.3 

Grade 

44.3 

Gaunt 

49.3 

Glad 

54.4 

Grain 

44.4 

Gavel 

49.4 

Gladen 

54.5 

Granite 

44.5 

Gawk 

49.5 

Gladly 

54.6 

Grasp 

49.6 

Glance                        54  .  7 

Grate 

Personal  Identification 


BERTILLON  HEIGHTS 


1.51.4     Mab 

.56.3     Manage 

1.61.2     Marry 

1.51.5     Macadam 

.56.4     Mandate 

1.61.3     Mars 

1.51.6     Macaroni 

.56.5     Mandril 

1.61.4     Marsh 

1.51.7     Macaw 

.56.6     Mane 

1.61.5     Mart 

1.51.8     Mace 

.  56  .  7     Manage 

1.61.6     Marten 

1.51.9     Machine 

1.56.8     Mandarin 

1.61.7     Martyr 

1.52.0     Mackerel 

1.56.9     Manful 

1.61.8     Marvel 

1.52.1     Mackle 

1.57.0     Mange 

1.61.9     Mascot 

1.52.2     Mad 

1  .  57  .  1     Manger 

1  .  62  .  0     Mash 

1.52.3     Madam 

1.57.2     Mangle 

1.62.1     Mashy 

1.52.4     Madcap 

1.57.3     Mango 

1.62.2     Mask 

1.52.5     Madder 

1  .  57  .  4     Mangrove 

1.62.3     Maslin 

1.52.6     MADE  (5'  0") 

1  .  57  .  5     Mangy 

1  .  62  .  4     Mason 

1.52.7     Madeira 

1.57.6       MANHOLE(5'2") 

1.62.5     Mass 

1.52.8     Madonna 

1  .  57  .  7     Manhood 

1.62.6     Massive 

1.52.9     Madrid 

1  .  57  .  8     Manifest 

1.62.7     Mast 

1  .  53  .  0     Madrigal 

1.57.9     Manifold 

1.62.8     MASTER  (5'  4") 

1.53.1     Maduro 

1  .  58  .  0     Manikin 

1.62.9     Mastic 

1.53.2     Maffia 

1.58.1     Manis 

1.63.0     Mastiff 

1  .  53  .  3     Magazine 

1.58.2     Mankind 

1  .  63  .  1     Mastoid 

1.53.4     Mage 

1.58.3     Manly 

1.63.2     Mat 

1  .  53  .  5     Maggot 

1.58.4     Manner 

1.63.3     Match 

1.53.6     Magi 

1.58.5     Manor 

1  .  63  .  4     Mate 

1.53.7     Magic 

1.58.6     Mantle 

1  .  63  .  5     Mater 

1.53.8     Maglip 

1.58.7     Manumit 

1  .  63  .  6     Material 

1  .  53  .  9     Magma 

1.58.8     Manure 

1.63.7     Maternal 

1.54.0     Magnate 

1.58.9     Many 

1  .  63  .  8     Mathes 

1  .  54  .  1     Magnify 

1  .  59  .  0     Manx 

1.63.9     Matin 

1.54.2     Magnolia 

1.59.1     Map 

1.64.0     Mattress 

1.54.3     Magpie 

1.59.2     Maple 

1  .  64  .  1     Matrix 

1.54.4     Maid 

1.59.3     Mar 

1  .  64  .  2     Matron 

1.54.5     Mail 

1  .  59  .  4     Marauder 

1.64.3     Matter 

1.54.6     Maim 

1.59.5     Marble 

1.64.4     Mattock 

1.54.7     Mainly 

1.59.6     March 

1.64.5     Mature 

1.54.8   'Maintain 

1  .  59  .  7     Marconi 

1.64.6     Maudlin 

1  .  54  .  9     Maintop 

1.59.8     Mare 

1.64.7     Maul 

1  .  55  .  0     Maize 

1  .  59  .  9     Margin 

1.64.8     Mauve 

1.55.1     MAJESTIC  (5'  1") 

1.60.0     Marine 

1.64.9     Maxim 

1.55.2     Major 

1.60.1     Marital 

1.65.0     Maw 

1.55.3     Make 

1.60.2     MARK  (5'  3") 

1.65.1     Mayday 

1.55.4     Maki 

1.60.3     Market 

1  .  65  .  2     Mayor 

.  55  .  5     Malady 

1.60.4     Marksman 

1.65.3     MAZE  (5'   5") 

.55.6     Malic 

1.60.5     Marl 

1.65.4     Mead 

.55.7     Mall 

1  .  60.  6     Marline 

1  .  65  .  5     Meadow 

.55.8     Mallet 

1.60.7     Marmot 

1  .  65  .  6     Meagre 

.  55  .  9     Malodor 

1.60.8     Maroon 

1.65.7     Meal 

.56.0     Malt 

1.60.9     Marquis 

1.65.8     Mean 

1.56.1     Mammal 

1.61.0     Marriage 

1  .  65  .  9     Measly 

1.56.2     Mammon 

1.61.1     Marrow 

1.66.0     Measure 

Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


255 


BERTILLON  HEIGHTS 


1.66.1     Meat. 

1.71.0     Mica 

1.75.9     Mizzen 

1  .  66  .  2     Mechanic 

1.71.1     Middle 

1.76.0     Moan 

1.66.3     Mechanism 

1.71.2     Midland 

1.76.1     Moat 

1.66.4     Medal 

1.71.3     Midnight 

1.76.2     Mobile 

1.66.5     Mediate 

1.71.4     Midship 

1.76.3     Mock 

1  .  66  .  6     Medical 

1.71.5     Midway 

1.76.4     Mode 

1.66.7     Medicine 

1.71.6     Might 

1.76.5     Model 

1.66.8     Medium 

1.71.7     Milch 

1.76.6     Modern 

1  .  66  .  9     Medley 

1.71.8     Mild 

1  .  76  .  7     Modify 

1.67.0     Medusa 

1.71.9     Mildew 

1.76.8     Mohair 

1.67.1     Meek 

1.72.0     Mile 

1.76.9     Moist 

1.67.2     Meeting 

1.72.1     Militia 

1  .  77  .  0     Molar 

1.67.3     Megrim 

1.72.2     Milk 

1  .  77  .  1     Molasses 

1.67.4     Melee 

1.72.3     Milkman 

1  .  77  .  2     Molest 

1.67.5     Melic 

1.72.4     Mill 

1.77.3     Moult 

1  .  67  .  6     Melinite 

1.72.5     Miller 

1.77.4     Molten 

1.67.7     Mellow 

1.72.6     Million 

1.77.5     Moment 

1.67.8     MELODY  (5'  6") 

1.72.7     Milt 

1  .  77  .  6     Monad 

1  .  67  .  9     Melon 

1.72.8     Mimic 

1  .  77  .  7     Monarch 

1  .  68  .  0     Melrose 

1.72.9     MINCE  (5'   8") 

1  .  77  .  8     Money 

1.68.1     Melt 

1.73.0     Mind 

1.77.9     Mongrel 

1.68.2     Member 

1  .  73  .  1     Mineral 

1.78.0     MONITOR  (5'   10") 

1.68.3     Memoir 

1.73.2     Minerva 

1.78.1     Monk 

1.68.4     Memory 

1  .  73  .  3     Mingle 

1.78.2     Monkey 

1.68.5     Menace 

1.73.4     Minim 

1.78.3     Monotony 

1.68.6     Mend 

1.73.5     Mink 

1.78.4     Monster 

1.68.7     Menial 

1  .  73  .  6     Minor 

1.78.5     Month 

1.68.8     Mental 

1.73.7     Minstrel 

1.78.6     Mood 

1.68.9     Mention 

1  .  73  .  8     Mint 

1.78.7     Moon 

1.69.0     Merchant 

1.73  9     Minute 

1.78.8     Moor 

1  .  69  .  1     Mercury 

1  .  74  .  0     Miracle 

1.78.9     Moose 

1  .  69  .  2     Mercy 

1.74.1     Mire 

1.79.0     Mope 

1  .  69  .  3     Mere 

1.74.2     Mirror 

1.79.1     Moral 

1  .  69  .  4     Merino 

1.74.3     Mirth 

1  .  79  .  2     Morass 

1.69.5     Merit 

1.74.4     Miscast 

1  .  79  .  3     Morose 

1.69.6     Merlin 

1.74.5     Miser 

1  .  79  .  4     Mordant 

1.69.7     Merry 

1  .  74  .  (3     Misgive 

1  .  79  .  5     Morn 

1.69.8     Mersion 

1.74.7     Mislay 

1  .  79  .  6     Morse 

1  .  69  .  9     Mess 

1  .  74  .  8     Misrule 

1  .  79  .  7     Mortal 

1.70.0     Message 

1  .  74  .  9     Miss 

1.79.8     Morter 

1.70.1     Metal 

1.75.0     Missile 

1  .  79  .  9     Mortise 

1.70.2     Metaphor 

1.75.1     Mission 

1.80.0     Mosaic 

1.70.3     Mete 

1.75.2     Mist 

1.80.1     Moss 

1.70.4     METEOR  (5'  7") 

1.75.3     Mistake 

1.80.2     Mote 

1.70.5     Method 

1  .  75  .  4     Mister 

1.80.3     Moth 

1.70.6     Mettle 

1.75.5     MISUSE  (5'  9") 

1.80.4     Mother 

1.70.7     Mew 

1.75.6     Mitre 

1.80.5     MOTION  (5'   11") 

1.70.8     Mezzo 

1.75.7     Mitten 

1.80.6     Motive 

1.70.9     Miasma 

1.75.8     Mixture 

1.80.7     Mold 

Personal  Identification 


BERTILLON  HEIGHTS 


.80 

8 

Mound 

I 

.85 

.7 

Museum 

.80 

• 

Mourn 

1 

.85 

8. 

Mush 

.81 

0 

Mouse 

1 

.85 

9 

Mushroom 

.81 

1 

Mouth 

1 

.86 

.0 

Music 

.81 

2 

Move 

1 

.86 

1 

Musing 

.81 

s 

Mown 

1 

.86 

.2 

Musk 

.81 

4 

Much 

1 

.86 

3 

Musket 

1.81 

5 

Muckle 

1 

.86 

.4 

Muskox 

1.81 

t; 

Mucus 

1 

.86 

5 

Muskrat 

1.81 

7 

Mud 

1 

.86 

(i 

Muslin 

1.81 

8 

Muff 

1 

.86 

.7 

Muss 

1.81 

9 

Mug 

1 

.86 

.8 

Mussel 

1.82 

0 

Mugwort 

1 

.86 

!) 

Must 

1.82 

i 

Mule 

1 

.87 

0 

Mustard 

1.82 

2 

Mullen 

1 

.87 

.1 

Mustee 

1.82 

3 

Multiple 

1 

.87 

2 

Muster 

1.82 

4 

Multiplex 

1 

.87 

.3 

Musty 

1.82 

5 

Multiply 

1 

.87 

4 

Mutable 

1.82 

6 

Multitude 

1 

.87 

5 

Mutage 

1.82 

7 

Mum 

1 

.87 

6 

Mutation 

1.82 

8 

Mumble 

1 

.87 

7 

Mute 

1.82 

!) 

Mumbo 

1 

.87 

8 

Mutely 

1.83 

(1 

MUMMER  (6') 

1 

.87 

!) 

Muteness 

1.83 

1 

Mummy 

1 

.88 

0 

MUTINE  (6'  2") 

1.83 

2 

Mump 

1 

.88 

1 

Mutiny 

1.83 

3 

Munch 

1 

.88 

2 

Mutter 

1.83 

4 

Mundane 

1 

.88 

3 

Mutton 

1.83 

5 

Mundic 

1 

.88 

4 

Mutual 

1.83 

(i 

Munition 

1 

.88 

5 

Mutule 

1.83 

7 

Munite 

1 

.88 

(5 

Muxy 

1.83 

8 

Munity 

1 

.88 

.7 

Muzzle 

1.83 

!) 

Munnion 

1 

.88 

8 

Muzzling 

1.84 

0 

Mural 

1 

.88 

9 

Muzzy 

1.84 

1 

Mure 

1 

.89 

0 

Mynheer 

1.84 

2 

Murex 

1 

.89 

1 

Myology 

1.84 

3 

Muriate 

1 

.89 

2 

Myopy 

1.84 

4 

Murk 

1 

.89 

3 

Myriad 

1.84 

5 

Murky 

1 

.89 

4 

Myriapod 

1.84 

fi 

Murmur 

1 

.89 

5 

Myriare 

1.84 

7 

Murrain 

1 

.89 

(5 

Myricin 

1.84 

8 

Murrey 

1 

.89 

7 

Myrmidon 

1.84 

!) 

Murza 

1 

.89 

8 

Myrobalan 

1.85 

0 

Musard 

1 

.89 

9 

Myron 

1.85 

1 

Muscat 

1 

.90 

0 

Myrrh 

1.85 

2 

Muscle 

1 

.90 

1 

Myrrhine 

1.85 

3 

Muscoid 

1 

.90 

2 

Myrtle 

1.85 

4 

Muscovy 

1 

.90 

3 

Myrus 

1.85 

5 

MUSE  (6'  1") 

1 

.90 

4 

Mystax 

1.85 

8 

Musette 

1 

.90 

5 

MTSTERIAL  (6'  3") 

Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


257 


BERTILLON  HEIGHTS 

1.90.6 
1.90.7 
1.90.8 
1.90.9 
1.91.0 

Mystery 
Mystic 
Mystical 
Mysticism 
Mystics 

1.91.1 
1.91.2 
1.91.3 
1.91.4 
1.91.5 

Mystify 
Myth 
Mythical 
Mythology 
Myxon 

V 

LITTLE  FINGER  LENGTH 

6.8 

Deacon 

9.3 

Defy 

6.9 

Deaf 

9.4 

Delay 

7.0 

Deal 

9.5 

Delft 

7.1 

Debar 

9.6 

Deluge 

7.2 

Debase 

9.7 

Delve 

7.3 

Debate 

9.8 

Demon 

7.4 

Debit 

9.9 

Demur 

7.5 

Decade 

10.0 

Denial 

7.6 

Decay 

10.1 

Denizen 

7.7 

Deceit 

10.2 

Dense 

7.8 

Decent 

10.3 

Dental 

7.9 

Decide 

10.4 

Deny 

8.0 

Deck 

10.5 

Depart 

8.1 

Declare 

10.6 

Depend 

8.2 

Decline 

10.7 

Deplore 

8.3 

Decoy 

10.8 

Deploy 

8.4 

Decry 

10.9 

Deport 

8.5 

Deduct 

11.0 

Depot 

8.6 

Deep 

11.1 

Depress 

8.7 

Deer 

11.2 

Depth 

8.8 

Deface 

11.8 

Deride 

8.9 

Defeat 

11.4 

Descend 

9.0 

De61e 

11.5 

Desert 

9.1 

Defix 

11.6 

Design 

9.2 

Deform 

11.7 

Desire 

258 


Personal  Identification 


HEIGHT  OF  BODY 


76.1     Baal 

81.0     Basic 

85.9     Belfry 

90.8     Bird 

76.2     Babe 

81.1     Basil 

86.0     Belie 

90.9     Birth 

76.3     Babel 

81.2     Basin 

86  .  1     Belief 

91.0     Bishop 

76.4     Back 

81.3     Bask 

86.2     Bell 

91.1     Bisk 

76.5     Bacon 

81.4     Basket 

86.3     Bellon 

91.2     Bison 

76.6     Badger 

81.5     Baste 

86.4     Bellow 

91.3     Bister 

76.7     Baffle 

81.6     Bat 

86  .  5     Belly 

91.4     Bit 

76.8     Bait 

81.7     Batch 

86.6     Belt 

91.5     Bits 

76.9     Baize 

81.8     Bath 

86  .  7     Bema 

91.6     Bitter 

77.0     Bake 

81.9     Baton 

86.8     Bemoan 

91.7     Bilts 

77.1     Balan 

82.0     Bawl 

86.9     Bench 

91.8     Bivouac 

77  .  2     Balance 

82.1     Bay 

87  .  0     Bend 

91.9     Blab 

77.3     Balcony 

82.2     Bazar 

87  .  1     Benedict 

92.0     Blade 

77.4     Bale 

82.3     Beach 

87.2     Benefit 

92.1     Blame 

77.5     Balk 

82.4     Beacon 

87.3     Benign 

92.2     Blanch 

77.6     Ball 

82.5     Bead 

87  .  4     Bent 

92.3     Bland 

77.7     Ballard 

82.6     Beadle 

87.5     Berg 

92.4     Blank 

77  .  8     Ballast 

82.7     Beak 

87  .  6     Berlin 

92.5     Blare 

77  .  9     Ballet 

82.8     Beam 

87  .  7     Berry 

92.6     Blast 

78.0     Balm 

82  .  9     Bear 

87.8     Beryl 

92.7     Blay 

78.1     Balmy 

83  .  0     Beard 

87  .  9     Beseech 

92.8     Blaze 

78.2     Balsam 

83  .  1     Beast 

88.0     Beside 

92.9     Bleach 

78.3     Baltic 

83.2     Beat 

88.1     Best 

93.0     Bleak 

78.4     Bamboo 

83.3     Beau 

88  .  2     Bestir 

93.1     Blear 

78.5     Banana 

83  .  4     Beck 

88  .  3     Betake 

93.2     Bleed 

78  .  6     Band 

83  .  5     Become 

88.4     Betel 

93.3     Blemish 

78.7     Bandage 

83  .  6     Bed 

88  .  5     Betide 

93.4     Blend 

78.8     Bandle 

83.7     Bedlam 

88  .  6     Betray 

93  .  5     Bless 

78.9     Bandy 

83  .  8     Bedpost 

88.7     Better 

93.6     Blest 

79.0     Bane 

83  .  9     Bedquilt 

88  .  8     Bevel 

93.7     Blight 

79.1     Bang 

84.0     Bee 

88.9     Bevy 

93  .  8     Blind 

79.2     Bangle 

84.1     Beech 

89  .  0     Beware 

93.9     Blink 

79.3     Banner 

84  .  2     Beef 

89.1     Beyond 

94.0     Bliss 

79.4     Baptism 

84  .  3     Beehive 

89.2     Bias 

94.1     Blister 

79.5     Barb 

84.4     Beer 

89.3     Bib 

94.2     Block 

79.6     Barbel 

84.5     Beet 

89.4     Bible 

94.3     Blood 

79.7     Bard 

84.6     Beetle 

89  .  5     Bicker 

94.4     Bloom 

79.8     Bare 

84.7     Befit 

89.6     Bid 

94.5     Blot 

79.9     Barge 

84  .  8     Before 

89.7     Bidding 

94.6     Blow 

80.0     Bark 

84  .  9     Befoul 

89  .  8     Biform 

94.7     Blowse 

80.  1     Barn 

85.0     Beg 

89.9     Bight 

94.8     Blub 

80.2     Baron 

85.1     Beget 

90.0     Bigot 

94.9     Bluff 

80.3     Barrel 

85  .  2     Begin 

90.1     Bilbo 

95.0     Blunt 

80.4     Barren 

85.3     Behave 

90.2     Bile 

95.1     Blur 

80.5     Barrow 

85  .  4     Behest 

90.3.   Bill 

95.2     Blurt 

80.6     Barter 

85.5     Behind 

90.4     Billow 

95  .  3     Blush 

80.7     Basalt 

85.6     Being 

90.5     Bin 

95.4     Boar 

SO.  8     Base 

85.7     Belch 

90.6     Bind 

65.5     Board 

80.9     Bashful 

85  .  8     Beldam 

90.7     Birch 

95.6     Boast 

Finger  Prints:    the  Code 


259 


HEIGHT  OF  BODY 

95.7     Boat 

97.1     Boom 

98.5     Bovine 

99  .  8     Breast 

95.8     Bob 

97.2     Boor 

98.6     Bow 

99.9     Breath 

95.9     Bode 

97.3     Boost 

98.7     Bowel 

1.00.0     Breed 

96.0     Bodice 

97.4     Boot 

98.8     Bowl 

1.00.1     Breeze 

96.1     Bog 

97.5     Booth 

98.9     Box 

1.00.2     Brew 

96.2     Boggle 

97  .  6     Borax 

99  .  0     Brace 

1.00.3     Brick 

96.3     Boil 

97  .  7     Bore 

99  .  1     Brag 

1.00.4     Bride 

96.4     Bold 

97.8     Boss 

99  .  2     Braid 

1.00.5     Bridge 

96.5     Bolt 

97  .  9     Botany 

99  .  3     Brail 

1.00.6     Brief 

96.6     Bond 

98  .  0     Botch 

99  .  4     Brain 

1.00.7     Brig 

96.7     Bone 

98.1     Both 

99  .  5     Brake 

1.00.8     Brim 

96.8     Bonny 

98  .  2     Bottle 

99  .  6     Bread 

1.00.9     Brink 

96.9     Bonze 

98.3     Bottom 

99  .  7     Bream 

1.01.0     Brisk 

97.0     Book 

98.4     Bourn 

OUTSTRETCHED  ARMS 

EAR  MEASUREMENTS 

1.50.0     Sabine 
1.51.0     Sadly 

1.80.0     Slit 
1.81.0     Sluice 

Length 

Length 

1.52.0     Saliva 

1.82.0     Smell 

5.0     Eagle 

7.8     Elf 

1  .  53  .  0     Sandal 

1.83.0     Snag 

5.1     Early 

7  .  9     Elide 

1.54.0     Satyr 

1.84.0     Snick 

5.2     Earn 

8.0     Elk 

1.55.0     Scale 

1.85.0     Snug 

5.3     Earth 

8.1     Elm 

1  .  56  .  0     Scheme 

1.86.0     Sofa 

5  .  4     Ease 

8.2     Else 

1  .  57  .  0     Score 

1.87.0     Sonata 

5.5     East 

8.3     Embalm 

1.58.0     Scrape 

1.88.0     Sort 

5.6     Easy 

8  .  4     Embar 

1.59.0     Scud 

1.89.0     Sot 

5.7     Eat 

8.5     Embark 

1.60.0     Sea 

1.90.0     Spasm 

5  .  8     Eaves 

1.61.0     Second 

1.91.0     Spend 

5.9     Ebb 

1.62.0     Seek 

1.92.0     Spire 

6.0     Ebony 

1  .  63  .  0     Senate 

1  .  93  .  0     Spong 

6  .  1     Echo 

EAR  LOBE 

1  .  64  .  0     Seps 

1.94.0     Sprig 

6.2     Eddy 

DESCRIPTIVE 

1  .  65  .  0     Serpent 

1  .  95  .  0     Spurt 

6  .  3     Edge 

1.66.0     Sever 

1.96.0     Stable 

6.4     Edict 

Code 

1.67.0     Shag 

1  .  97  .  0     Stalk 

6  .  5     Edit 

1.68.0     Shave 

1.98.0     Start 

6.6     Educe 

Separated,     Excuse 

1  .  69  .  0     Shekle 
1.70.0     Shirt 

1  .  99  .  0     Steep 
2.00.0     Sting 

6.7     Eel 

6.8     Egg 

Adhering,     Exert 

1.71.0     Shout 

6  .  9     Egret 

1.72.0     Shrink 

7.0     Eider 

Descending,  Exile 

1  .  73  .  0     Siege 

7  .  1     Either 

1.74.0     Silk 

7  .  2     Eject 

1.75.0     Sing 

7.3     Eke 

1.76.0     Site 

7.4     Eland 

1.77.0     Skunk 

7  .  5     Elastic 

1.78.0     Slat 

7.6     Elect 

1.79.0     Slice 

7.7     Elegy 

CHAPTER  VII 

ACCIDENTAL    IMPRESSIONS;       METHODS    OF    DEVELOPMENT;       THEIR    USE    IN 
PROVING   THE   AGENCY   OF   A   GIVEN   INDIVIDUAL 

Judicial  Proof 

"Proof  of  the  identity  of  finger  prints,  is  that  degree  of  certainty  which 
precludes  the  possibility  of  accidental  coincidence.  Two  finger  prints  made 
by  any  process  cannot  be  exactly  identical,  if  examined  with  microscopic 
accuracy.  The  problem  is  to  determine  whether  two  impressions  were  actu- 
ally made  by  the  same  finger."  —  Albert  S.  Osborn,  in  Questioned  Docu- 
ments, 1910. 

Police  Practice 

"These  details,  which  give  papillary  ridges  a  character  definitely 
identifiable,  have  resulted  in  making  finger  prints  an  element  of  Judicial  proof. 
And  in  fact  in  a  great  number  of  countries  the  research  of  this  sort  of  traces 
has  entered  into  the  practice  and  has  given  the  most  excellent  results.  All 
smooth  objects  which  the  hand  touches  keep  the  impression,  visible  if  it  is 
bloody  or  dirty,  invisible  if  there  is  only  a  small  deposit  of  secretion.  Windows 
broken  by  a  robber,  bottles  and  glasses  from  which  the  criminal  has  drunk, 
money  drawers  which  the  robber  has  opened,  the  furniture  and  the  walls  where 
he  has  rested  his  hand,  will  reveal  to  the  officer  the  identity  of  the  thief;  the 
writer  of  anonymous  letters  has  occasionally  signed  them  in  spite  of  himself 
by  the  very  touch  of  his  fingers.  In  all  cases  of  misdemeanors  or  crimes,  the 
finger  prints  are  the  surest  means  of  identifying  the  malefactor."  —  M.  Ed- 
mond  Locard,  Director  of  the  Laboratory  of  Police,  Lyons,  France.  1914- 

IN  the  City  of  Lyons,  France,  as  soon  as  it  is  discovered  that  a  crime 
has  been  committed,  the  patrolman,  or  whoever  makes  the  discovery, 
immediately  telephones  to  the  Police  Laboratory.  The  informant 
gets  a  formal  order  not  to  disturb  anything  and  an  officer  is  placed  in 
charge  to  guard  the  place,  and  see  that  the  finger  marks  are  not  obliterated. 
The  agents  attached  to  the  Bureau  can  thus  arrive  in  time  to  discover  the 
traces,  stains  or  prints,  which  are  taken  to  the  Laboratory;  or,  if  that  is 
impossible,  they  are  photographed  on  the  spot.  In  practice  it  is  an  ex- 
ceptional case  where  no  trace  is  left.  It  can  be  seen  that  the  expert  ought 
to  be  the  first  to  enter  the  place  before  anything  has  been  handled,  other- 
wise there  will  be  found  only  the  prints  of  the  idle  and  the  curious,  and 
possibly  those  of  the  police  themselves.  The  authors  believe  if  there 

260 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development  261 

ever  was  needed  the  warning,  "Hands  Off,"  it  is  at  the  place  where  a  crime 
has  been^committed.  An  expert  photographer  once  told  one  of  the  authors 
of  a  prosecuting  attorney  rubbing  with  his  hands  the  handle  of  a  razor  with 
which  a  crime  had  been  committed,  and  then  asking  the  photographer  if 
he  "could  photograph  the  marks  on  it."  To  this  the  photographer 
promptly  replied,  "No,  I  cannot,"  and  gave  as  a  reason  to  the  surprised 
official  that  the  article  had  been  handled.  It  is  easily  understood  that  a 
prosecuting  attorney  is  capable  of  as  much  mischief  under  these  circum- 
stances as  any  other  person. 

In  the  whole  subject  of  identification  by  finger  prints,  the  public  is 
most  interested  in  that  branch  of  it  where  the  author  of  a  crime  is  dis- 
covered by  an  imprint  left  at  the  scene,  unknown  to  himself;  or  where, 
in  addition  to  other  proofs,  further  evidence  is  furnished  by  some  imprint, 
more  or  less  clear,  found  where  the  crime  has  been  committed.  This 
chapter  treats  of  cases  of  this  kind,  with  illustrations  kindly  furnished 
from  different  parts  of  the  United  States,  France,  and  particularly  Scot- 
land Yard,  London,  to  which  an  entire  section  has  been  alloted. 

The  authors  have  been  asked  many  times  to  explain  how  it  is  that 
imprints  left  accidentally  at  the  scene  of  a  crime  can  be  developed  to  the 
extent  of  being  useful,  and  in  general  some  such  explanation  as  follows 
is  given.  The  friction  ridges  are  thickly  studded  with  microscopic  pores 
and  through  these  there  is  a  continuous  flow  of  perspiratory  secretion 
generally  imperceptible  to  the  naked  eye.  When  a  finger  comes  in  contact 
with  a  smooth  surface  that  is  cold  and  dry,  the  imprints  made  by  the 
ridges  are  left,  more  or  less  distinct,  on  the  article  touched.  Where  it 
is  possible  these  imprints  are  photographed,  generally  larger  than  the 
original.  Sometimes  it  is  necessary  before  taking  the  photograph  to 
bring  out  the  imprints  with  some  reagent,  using  black  powder  if  the  im- 
prints are  on  a  light  surface,  or  on  white  paper,  and  white  powder  if  the 
imprints  are  on  glass  or  a  dark  surface.  It  will  at  once  be  seen  that  the 
visibility  of  these  accidental  imprints  is  thus  largely  increased  on  account 
of  the  adhesion  of  the  powder  to  the  moisture  or  oily  secretion  left  by 
the  ridges,  and  the  earlier  the  attempt  to  bring  out  these  marks  the  better 
chance  of  success,  for  there  is  great  liability  of  failure  if  the  impression 
has  become  perfectly  dry. 

The  black  powders  in  common  use  here  are  generally  animal  black, 
graphite,  lampblack,  powdered  willow  charcoal,  black  antimony,  and 
others  of  a  similar  nature.  These  are  used  ordinarily  to  develop  marks 
on  paper  or  light  surfaces;  on  glass  or  dark  surfaces,  "gray-powder," 
composed  of  chalk  and  white  oxide  of  mercury,  is  used,  although  there 
.  are  prepared  powders  for  sale,  both  black  and  white,  that  are  excellent 
for  the  purpose.  A  word  of  warning  may  not  be  amiss;  in  rolling  black 
powder  back  and  forth  on  paper  to  bring  out  the  imprints,  care  must  be 


Personal  Identification 


taken  that  the  powder  does  not  gather  itself  into  little  balls,  as  snow  balls 
increase  by  rolling.  It  has  been  noticed  in  numerous  experiments  made 
by  one  of  the  authors  with  impressions  of  his  own  fingers,  that  the  smallest 
ball  of  powder  would  obliterate  the  delicate  lines  that  had  just  been  de- 
veloped and  the  imprints  thereby  be  ruined.  In  the  application  of  the 
white  or  gray  powder  a  fine  brush  of  camel's  hair  is  used  and  the  powder 
applied  very  lightly,  in  other  words  "patted  or  dusted  on,"  and  then  as 
lightly  brushed  or  blown  off.  Care  must  be  used  not  to  attempt  to  re- 
move too  much  of  the  powder,  because  some  of  the  delicate  details  that 
have  just  appeared  may  be  lost  with  it.  M.  Stockis  of  Liege,  Belgium, 
has  originated  a  process  of  photography  by  indirect  illumination  without 
coloring,  and  M.  Edmond  Locard  of  the  Laboratory  of  Police  in  Lyons, 
France,  has  been  wonderfully  successful  by  coloring  with  very  fine  re- 
agents, and  up  to  the  present  has  obtained  the  best  results  with  the  oxides 
of  lead,  particularly  the  red  oxide  (Pb3O4).  Still  other  trials  with 
litharge  and  dioxide  gave  extremely  clear  results. 

The  practical  application  is  as  follows:  if  a  suspicious  imprint  is 
developed  with  black  powder,  it  can  at  once  be  compared  with  an  inked 
imprint  from  a  suspect,  and  if  there  seems  to  be  doubt  one  way  or  the 
other,  both  are  enlarged  5  to  6  diameters  and  the  points  of  identity  in 
each  are  checked  up. 

The  commonest  method  of  comparison  is  to  mark  the  points  of  iden- 
tity, one  after  another,  as  found,  by  means  of  lines  drawn  from  them  to 
the  margin,  and  bearing  letters  or  numbers  by  which  to  distinguish  them 
(Figures  61  and  62  below). 

Another  method,  devised  by  Albert  S.  Osborn,  is  to  divide  each  of 
the  two  enlarged  photographs  into  squares,  both  exactly  alike,  with  the 
squares  occupying  identical  positions  on  each,  and  then  examine  them  in 
order,  square  for  square,  noting  the  points  of  identity  in  each  (Chapter 
IX,  Figure  131). 

Seymour  uses  still  another  method,  that  of  making  skeleton  tracings. 
These  he  makes  on  tracing  paper;  (1)  from  the  suspected  print,  and  (2) 
from  a  print  of  the  accused,  and  compares  them  by  placing  them  to- 
gether and  holding  them  up  to  the  light. 

These  methods  are  necessary  only  when  the  two  prints  in  question 
seem  to  be  very  similar.  When  certain  and  definite  differences  are  seen 
by  the  eye,  these  more  careful  methods  are  not  required. 

Where  the  traces  are  developed  by  white  powder,  a  different  method 
is  followed,  as  it  is  desired  ordinarily  to  compare  the  lines  comprising  the 
developed  trace  with  the  black  lines  made  with  ink  from  some  digit  of  a 
suspected  person.  In  the  taking  of  the  photograph  the  plate  is  put  in. 
the  plate  holder  with  the  film  side  away  from  the  object  photographed, 
and  after  the  plate  so  made  is  completed,  another  plate  is  made  from  this, 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development  263 

as  lantern  slides  are  made,  and  the  photographs  printed  from  the  last 
plate.  This  will  take  considerable  time;  to  save  which,  for  quick  com- 
parison, an  imprint  can  be  made  from  the  digit  of  a  suspected  person  by 
the  use  of  white  ink  on  glossy  black  paper.  This  has  the  advantage  of 
being  ready  for  comparison  in  a  minute  or  two.  Still  another  method 
suggests  itself  that  has  been  tried  with  good  success,  that  of  taking  the 
imprint  of  the  suspect  on  a  cleared  photographic  film,  with  ink,  then 
using  the  film  as  a  photographic  negative  with  the  sensitized  paper  under- 
neath and  not  in  contact  with  the  inked  side.  This  will  give  results  of 
surprising  brilliancy,  Figure  85  showing  the  ridges  as  white  lines  with  the 
details  brought  out  in  a  wonderful  manner.  These  can  be  quickly  printed 


FIGURE  85.  This  figure  shows  the  method  of  taking  white  prints  on  a  black 
background.  The  prints  are  taken  directly  upon  a  cleared  film,  instead  of  on 
paper,  and  this  is  used  as  a  negative,  and  is  printed  through  in  the  usual  way. 
The  result  is  shown  here.  The  ridges  appear  as  white  lines  upon  a  black  ground, 
and  are  exceptionally  clear.  In  many  places  even  the  pores  are  seen,  showing 
as  black  dots  on  the  white  ridges. 

and  compared  with  the  imprint  that  has  been  developed  with  white  powder. 
The  advantage  of  reversing  the  colors  in  the  photograph  comes  from  the 
fact  that  nearly  everybody  has  examined  ridges  as  black  lines  on  a  white 
surface,  and  but  very  few  have  examined  them  as  white  lines  on  black. 
In  the  Section  allotted  for  the  methods  used  at  Scotland  Yard,  this  subject 
has  been  gone  into  at  some  length,  and  all  the  illustrations  show  black 
lines,  both  those  developed  with  white  powder  and  those  developed  with 
black.  In  the  development  or  coloring  of  the  accidental  imprint  the 
greatest  care  must  be  used  not  to  overdo  it,  because  the  imprint  at  best 
will  be  poor.  It  will  be  granted  that  one  will  never  find  an  accidental 
imprint  that  is  absolutely  perfect;  it  is  seldom,  indeed,  that  a  very  good 
one  is  found,  and  in  all  the  attempts  to  develop  them,  the  object  is  to 
improve  and  not  to  destroy  the  imprint  left  accidentally  by  the  criminal,— 
a  print  that  will  be  poor  at  best. 

It  is  admitted  that  identification  does  not  consist  merely  in  finding 


264  Personal  Identification 


forks,  or  interruptions  of  the  ridges  in  homologous  positions;  the  angular 
value  of  the  forks  is  still  necessary  to  consider,  also  the  length  of  these 
interruptions  and  even  the  width  of  the  corresponding  lines.  It  follows 
then  that  in  a  light  trace,  or  where  the  center  of  the  figure  is  effaced,  it 
is  necessary  to  be  particularly  observant  about  the  appearance  of  each 
of  the  points  under  observation. 

Locard  summarizes  the  principles  of  Identification  from  Impressions, 
as  he  sees  them,  as  follows :  * 

Three  cases  may  be  presented: 

1.  There  are  more  than  12  evident  points;   the  impression  is  clear; 
absolute  identification. 

2.  There  are  8 — 12    points;  limited  cases;  certainty  depends  upon: 

(a)  the  clearness  of  the  impression ; 

(b)  the  rarity  of  the  type; 

(c)  the  presence  of  the  center  of  the  figure  [core]  or  the 

triangle  [delta]  in  the  part  that  is  decipherable; 

(d)  the  presence  of  pores; 

(e)  the  perfect  and  evident  identity  of  the  breadth  of  the 

ridges  and  furrows,  of  the  direction  of  the  lines,  and 

the  angular  value  of  the  forks. 

In  these  cases  certainty  of  identification  is  to  be  established  only 
after  the  discussion  of  the  case  by  one  or  more  competent  and 
experienced  specialists. 

3.  There  are  very  few  points;  in  this  case  the  print,  taken  by  itself, 

does  not  furnish  certain  identity,  but  only  a  presumption 
proportional  to  the  number  and  clearness  of  the  points. 
If  there  is  a  series  of  impressions  in  the  same  case,  and  none  suffices 
of  itself  to  establish  absolute  certainty,  what  of  their  total  value?     We  must 
here  distinguish  three  cases : 

(a)  The  same  finger  is  repeated  many  times:  if  certain 
points  of  identity  are  discernible  on  one  impression 
and  not  on  another,  it  is  proper  to  add  them.  Let 
us  suppose,  for  example,  that  the  impression  of 
the  Right  Index  is  found  on  a  bottle  three  times; 
that  the  best  impression  shows  10  points,  the  sec- 
ond five  of  these  already  seen  on  the  first,  together 
with  two  new  ones;  that  the  third  shows  four 
points  already  identified  on  either  the  first  or  the 
second,  together  with  three  new  ones;  we  would 

*From  La  Preuve  Judiciaire  par  les  Empreintes  Digitales,  by  Edmond  Locard, 
Director  of  the  Police  Laboratory  at  Lyons,  France.  Published  at  Lyons  by  A.  Rey, 
1914,  pp.  16-17. 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development  265 

then  say  that  the  identification  of  the  impressions 
with  the  Right  Index  of  the  accused  is  made  by 
10  +  2  +  3  =  15  points.  With  any  one  of  the 
three  prints  the  identification  was  only  presump- 
tive; with  the  entire  series  it  becomes  positive. 
(&)  There  are  many  different  impressions,  each  of  which 
offers  some  presumption  of  identity  with  the  finger 
patterns  of  the  accused,  but  no  one  of  which  is 
determined  by  its  position  as  coming  from  a  certain 
finger.  Such  would  be  the  case  if  we  found,  for 
example,  one  impression  on  the  neck  of  a  bottle, 
and  another  along  the  middle;  one  could  not  say 
whether,  from  their  position,  they  came  from  an 
Index  and  Middle  finger,  or  from  a  Ring  and  a 
Little  finger.  If  the  first  presents  six  points  in 
common  with  the  Right  Index  of  the  accused,  and 
the  second  four  points  in  common  with  his  Left 
Ring  finger,  the  presumption  of  identity  is  strength- 
ened, but  we  cannot  call  this  positive  identification, 
since  we  find  ourselves  facing  a  double  coincidence, 
(c)  There  are  many  impressions  of  successive  fingers,  as 
shown  by  their  position.  This  is  the  very  common 
case  where  an  object,  seized  by  the  open  hand, 
presents,  side  by  side,  and  in  their  natural  order, 
the  impressions  of  the  Index,  Middle,  Ring,  and 
Little  fingers,  with,  on  the  other  side  of  the  object, 
the  impression  of  the  opposing  thumb.  If  all  of 
the  impressions  are  individually  insufficient;  if, 
for  example,  they  offer  7,  9,  8,  and  11  points  of 
identity  respectively,  corresponding  to  homologous 
points  upon  the  accused,  one  should  not  hesitate 
to  conclude  positive  identification,  since  the  force 
of  increasing  certainty  here  follows  the  Law  of 
Exponents  [the  one  explained  in  Chapter  X,  re- 
garding the  identification  of  the  body  of  Marie 
Roget].  In  fact,  it  is  not  sufficient  to  say  that, 
in  such  a  case,  the  points  are  to  be  added;  the 
coincidence  in  form  in  the  whole  series  of  finger 
patterns  represents  a  number  of  possibilities  of 
error  infinitely  smaller  than  where  the  fingers 
themselves  are  not  determined  [Case  b  above]. 

The  reader  will  naturally  ask,  what  constitutes  an  identification  after 
all  the  different  combinations  have  been  considered,  and  the  answer  must 


Personal  Identification 


be,  that  it  depends  upon  the  number  and  position  of  the  points  of  identity, 
although  the  calculations  (generally  accepted)  based  on  the  researches 
of  Galton,  Fere,  Balthazard,  Oloriz  and  others  appear  to  show  that  cer- 
tain identity  can  scarcely  be  claimed  without  at  least  12  homologous 
points  of  comparison.  The  above  is  the  generally  accepted  rule,  with  the 
exceptions  noted,  yet  the  authors  and  some  others  feel  that  six  or  eight 
points  well  grouped,  defining  a  center  of  exceptional  form,  constitutes 
such  a  perfect  proof  of  identity  as  to  give  no  grounds  for  argument,  while 
double  the  number  of  forks  disseminated  in  the  outer  zone  of  some  con- 
fused trace,  may  leave  the  way  open  for  reasonable  doubt. 

All  the  different  writers  warn  their  readers  to  use  the  utmost  care 
in  making  these  comparisons.  Galton  states  "that  the  number  of  patterns 
that  can  be  promptly  distinguished  from  one  another  is  not  large,"  and 
an  American  writer  sums  up  the  matter  concisely  as  follows:  "In  the 
end  it  is  the  microscopic  identity  of  the  ridge  characteristics  (Galton's 
minutiae)  that  settles  the  question.  I  have  seen  prints  which  on  survey 
one  would  almost  swear  his  life  away  were  from  the  same  individual,  but 
put  a  glass  on  them,  and  presto,  change,  their  differences  are  self  evident." 

These  •  references  referred  to  inked  imprints,  and  if  such  careful  ex- 
amination is  required  as  suggested  by  them  for  the  inked  imprints,  we 
should  be  all  the  more  careful  in  deciding  on  the  identity  of  two  imprints, 
one  being  that  of  an  accused  person,  and  the  other  an  accidental  impres- 
sion found  at  the  scene  of  a  crime. 

The  methods  of  developing  chance  impressions  found  at  the  scene 
of  crime,  as  used  by  the  authorities  at  New  Scotland  Yard,  are  described 
in  detail  in  the  manual  by  Sir  Edward  Richard  Henry,  the  Commissioner 
at  that  place.*  With  the  especial  permission  of  this  author  these  methods 
are  quoted  here.  Following  this  are  given  the  details  of  seven  repre- 
sentative cases,  also  from  Scotland  Yard,  illustrated  by  photographs  from 
there,  loaned  the  authors  by  Sir  E.  R.  Henry.  These  latter  are  undoubtedly 
the  finest  collection  of  the  kind  anywhere  available. 

Finger  Prints  found  at  the  scene  of  Crime;  .How  to  Photograph  and 
Prepare  Exhibits  for  Production  in  Court.  [From  Henry,  E.  R.,  Classi- 
fication, etc.,  pp.  105-1 10.] 

"Chief  Inspector  Charles  Collins,  of  the  New  Scotland  Yard  Finger 
Print  Department,  has  prepared  the  following  note  which  explains  the 
method  adopted  in  London: 

"Evidence  as  to  the  identification  of  persons  by  means  of  finger 
prints,  when  given  by  competent  witnesses,  is  accepted  in  Criminal  Courts. 

"Crime  investigators  should  know  the  method  by  which  finger  prints 
are  compared  for  the  purpose  of  deciding  questions  of  identity  so  that, 

Classification  and  Uses  of  Finger  Prints;  Fourth  Edition.  By  Sir  E.  R.  Henry, 
the  Commissioner,  New  Scotland  Yard,  London. 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development  267 

with  the  aid  of  a  reading  glass,  they  can  readily  determine  whether  or 
not  any  particular  impression  possesses  sufficient  clearly  defined  charac- 
teristic detail  for  the  purpose  of  fixing  identity. 

"Any  article  with  a  smooth  surface  is  likely  to  retain  imprints  of  value 
if  touched.  Finger  prints  on  rough  surfaces  are,  as  a  rule,  of  little  use. 

"Latent  impressions  can  be  developed  with  the  aid  of  powders.  If 
the  marks  are  on  blades  of  knives,  plated  goods,  or  on  surfaces  of  a  dark 
nature,  'Grey'  powder  (mercury  and  chalk  as  sold  commercially  by 
chemists)  is  used.  If  the  impressions  are  on  paper  or  on  surfaces  of  a 
light  color,  graphite  or  lampblack  will  develop  them.  These  powders 
ought  to  be  used  sparingly  with  a  fine  camel  hair  brush.  All  superfluous 
powder  must  be  blown  or  brushed  away. 

"Unless  the  prints  are  latent,  powder  should  not  be  used  at  the  time 
of  discovery  by  the  Investigating  Officer,  as  it  sometimes  happens  that 
the  powder  reduces  the  area  available  for  comparison  by  obscuring  some 
of  the  characteristic  detail.  It  is  always  possible  for  a  skilful  photo- 
grapher to  obtain  a  satisfactory  photograph  without  the  use  of  powder 
when  the  detail  is  discernible,  though  faint. 

"  When  finger  prints  are  on  a  part  of  a  broken  window,  the  remaining 
pieces  should  be  preserved  so  that  they  might,  if  necessary,  be  fitted  to- 
gether, thus  supplying  evidence  as  to  a  particular  piece  being  part  of  the 
window  broken.  Similar  precaution  should  be  taken  in  other  instances, 
if  considered  necessary. 

"In  all  cases  where  finger  prints  are  found  at  the  scene  of  a  crime, 
the  officer  should  endeavor  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  they  are  the  prints 
of  any  person  residing  in  the  house,  or  those  of  a  police  officer  or  other 
person  who  may  have  arrived  earlier  on  the  scene. 

"It  should  be  distinctly  understood  that  finger  marks  which  do  not 
disclose  clearly  defined  detail  when  viewed  through  a  reading  glass  are 
generally  found  to  be  useless  when  photographed. 

"At  New  Scotland  Yard  much  care  and  thought  has  been  given  to 
the  photographing  of  finger  marks,  and  as  a  result  efficient  appliances 
have  been  installed.  They  include  a  large  camera  with  sufficient  bellows 
extension  to  enable  prints  to  be  enlarged  six  diameters,  two  powerful 
electric  arc  lamps  which,  by  means  of  overhead  rails,  can  be  placed  in  any 
position;  and  an  enlarging  lantern  capable  of  enlarging  a  finger  print 
sixty  diameters. 

"Finger  perspiration  marks  on  a  piece  of  glass  are  photographed 
by  placing  the  glass  between  the  jaws  of  a  small  vice.  The  vice  has  a 
fitting  attached  which  permits  of  its  sliding  up  or  down  a  metal  rod.  This 
metal  rod  has  a  heavy  base  to  keep  it  steady.  A  thumbscrew  is  fitted 
so  that  the  vice  can  be  fixed  to  the  rod  at  any  height.  A  box  about  18 
inches  deep  of  cross  section  6  inches  square,  lined  with  black  velvet,  is 


268  Personal  Identification 


placed  on  its  side  with  the  open  end  immediately  behind  the  finger  mark. 
The  rays  of  light  from  the  lamps  are  not  permitted  to  reach  the  far  end 
of  the  interior  of  the  box,  thus  ensuring  a  dead  black  background.  The 
lights  (one  on  each  side  of  the  lens)  are  arranged  in  such  position  that  the 
ridge  lines  when  focussed  on  the  screen  of  the  camera  will  appear  light  on 
a  dark  ground,  a  second  plate  has  to  be  made  from  the  first  by  contact 
in  the  manner  one  would  make  a  lantern  plate.  The  printing  is  done 
from  the  second  plate.  The  first  plate  when  placed  in  the  dark  slide 
before  it  is  exposed  is  reversed,  that  is  to  say,  the  film  side  is  away  from 
the  lens.  If  this  is  not  done,  when  printing  from  the  plate,  left  will  appear 
for  right  in  the  finished  print,  e.  </.,  B  appearing  9.  Conversely,  if  the 
side  of  the  glass  on  which  the  finger  impression  appears  is  turned  away 
from  the  lens  the  first  plate  is  not  reversed. 

"Finger  perspiration  marks  on  blades  of  knives  or  on  plated  goods 
are  photographed  in  a  similar  manner,  but  the  velvet  lined  box  is  not 
needed.  The  lighting  is  sometimes  difficult  since  the  article  must  be 
placed  and  lighted  in  such  a  way  that  the  impression  will  appear  on  the 
screen  light  on  a  dark  ground.  A  little  patience  is  rewarded  by  obtaining 
the  desired  result. 

"Similar  imprints  on  glass  bottles  and  tumblers  are  photographed  by 
the  preceding  method,  but  the  bottles  are  filled  with  a  black  or  dark  red 
fluid  to  get  the  necessary  contrast.  Tumblers  can  be  filled  with  a  similar 
liquid  when  the  marks  are  on  the  outside  of  the  glass,  but,  as  a  rule,  better 
results  are  obtained  by  placing  a  piece  of  dead  black  paper  in  contact 
with  the  whole  of  the  inside  surface  of  the  vessel  with  the  exception  of 
that  part  covered  by  the  finger  print.  Another  sheet  of  this  paper  prevents 
light  from  entering  the  top. 

"The  convexity  of  bottles,  etc.,  is  sometimes  the  cause  of  reflections 
appearing  over  a  part  of  the  area  covered  by  the  finger  impression.  This 
is  removed  by  altering  the  position  of  the  lamps. 

"When  finger  prints  are  found  on  the  smooth  side  of  corrugated 
glass,  the  numerous  reflections  are  removed  by  filling  the  uneven  surface 
with  black  printing  ink. 

"The  ridges  of  fingers  when  impressed  heavily  on  a  candle  create 
furrows  similar  in  pattern  to  those  of  the  ridges.  Before  being  photo- 
graphed such  imprints  are  treated  in  the  following  manner:  The  impres- 
sion is  covered  with  printing  ink,  superfluous  ink  being  afterwards  re- 
moved until  only  that  in  the  furrows  remain.  This  is  a  similar  process 
to  that  adopted  by  printers  when  preparing  an  engraved  name  plate  for 
press. 

"Finger  marks  in  blood  or  dark  impressions  on  a  light  surface  are 
photographed  as  of  black  on  a  white  surface. 

"It  sometimes  happens  that  when  a  finger  covered  with  a  liquid 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


269 


such  as  blood  is  impressed  heavily,  the  pattern  left  indicates  that  of  the 
furrows,  not  the  ridges.  If  on  comparison  this  is  found  to  be  the  case  & 
photograph  showing  the  true  sequence  can  be  obtained  by  reversing  the 
first  plate  and  making  a  second  by  contact. 

"Slow  plates  and  a  developer  likely  to  produce  maximum  contrast 
should  be  used. 

"It  is  not  possible  to  give  definite  information  concerning  the  ex- 
posure of  plates,  so  many  factors  have  to  be  considered.  When  photo- 
graphing a  faint  mark  illuminated  by  two  arc  lamps  with  slow  plates, 


FIGURE  86.  Photographic  enlargement  of  a 
chance  impression  found  on  a  window  pane.  (From 
Scotland  Yard,  London.) 

F  22  stop  and  enlarging  six  diameters,  twenty  to  thirty  minutes  exposure  is 
given. 

"It  is  not  suggested  that  these  hints  cover  the  whole  field  of  this 
interesting  subject.  Each  case  must  be  dealt  with  as  occasion  requires. 
It  is  thought,  however,  that  they  may  assist  those  possessing  a  good  knowl- 
edge of  photography  who  are  called  upon  to  photograph  finger  marks 
found  at  the  scene  of  crime. 

"Figures  86,  87,  and  88  illustrate  the  way  in  which  finger  print  ex- 
hibits are  prepared  at  New  Scotland  Yard  for  production  in  Court.  The 
characteristics,  such  as  bifurcations,  abruptly  terminating  ridges,  or  any 


270  Personal  Identification 


other  noticeable  peculiarities,  are  marked  with  red  ink  and  numbered  as 
shown. 

"The  exhibits  are  enlarged  six  diameters.  A  sufficient  number, 
usually  about  twelve,  are  prepared  for  distribution  amongst  the  Judge, 
the  Jury,  and  Counsel.  A  few  unmarked  copies  are  always  available  in 
case  they  might  be  required." 

The  following  seven  cases,  furnished  by  Scotland  Yard,  illustrate  the 
method  just  described.  They  vary  in  details  sufficiently  to  embrace  all 


27   26 


FIGURE  87.  Photographic  enlargement  of  the 
pattern  on  the  left  index  finger  of  a  prisoner,  J.  H. 
Wheeldon.  Compare  with  the  accidental  impres- 
sion on  the  window  pane  in  the  preceding  figure,  and 
check  up  the  28  points  of  identity. 

the  usual  conditions,  such  as  the  surfaces  upon  which  records  are  made, 
various  types  of  patterns,  degree  of  perfection  of  the  prints,  and  so  on. 
1.  The  last  three  figures,  86,  87,  and  88,  used  to  illustrate  the  method, 
represent  the  left  index  pattern  of  J.  H.  Wheeldon.  The  chance  im- 
pression, Figure  86,  was  found  on  a  window  pane,  and  is  an  Ulnar  Loop 
with  a  ridge  count  of  14.  As  this  was  on  glass,  it  was  developed 
with  gray  powder,  and  then  a  reversed  plate  was  made  before  printing  the 
photograph.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  other  specimens  in  this  collec- 
tion which  were  found  upon  glass. 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


271 


Figure  87  was  taken  from  the  left  index  of  the  accused,  and  shows 
28  points  of  identity  with  the  chance  impression.  These  are  brought  out 
in  detail  in  the  outline  drawing  of  this  finger  pattern  shown  in  the  next 
figure  (Figure  88). 

2.  Figures  89  and  90  show  the  left  index  pattern  of  George  Brown. 
The  first  is  a  chance  impression  left  upon  glass;  the  second  is  a  p'rint, 
taken  from  the  finger.  The  pattern  is  a  Radial  Loop,  and  has  a  high 


FIGURE  88.  Sketch  showing  the  ridge 
characteristics  of  the  previous  print,  to 
assist  in  the  comparison.  Compare  to- 
gether Figures  86,  87,  and  88. 

ridge  count,  but  as  the  delta  is  not  shown,  the  actual  count  cannot  be 
determined  with  any  degree  of  exactness.  There  are  14  points  of  identity. 
3.  Figures  91  and  92  are  the  prints  of  the  right  index  of  William 
Simpson,  who  broke  into  a  window  on  the  second  floor  of  the  London 
City  Mission.  Th'e  caretaker  was  aroused  by  the  police,  who  saw  that 
the  window  was  broken,  and  it  was  found  that  the  premises  had  been 
easily  enterfed  from  the  adjoining  building.  The  police  noticed  a  finger 
print  on  a  piec-e  of  glass  from  the  broken  window  and  took  it  to  the  Finger 
Print  Department,  New  Scotland  Yard.  This  finger  print  was  found  to 


L'7.' 


Personal  Identification 


be  that  of  the  right  index  finger  of  William  Simpson.  At  his  trial  Simpson 
pleaded  guilty  and  was  sentenced  to  twelve  months  hard  labor.  The 
pattern  is  an  Inside  Lateral  Pocket.  There  are  15  points  of  identity. 

4.     Figures  93  and  94  are  taken  from  the  right  thumb  of  George 
Lane;    the  first  was  developed  from  a  mark,  accidentally  left  on  a  box; 


11 


FIGURE  89.     Accidental  mark  left  on  glass,  enlarged  5  diameters.     (From 
Scotland  Yard,  London.) 

the  second  was  a  print  taken  by  the  police  from  the  thumb  in  question. 
The  first  consists  of  two  impressions  of  the  same  finger,  partly  overlapping. 

Judging  by  the  appearance  of  the  ridges,  where  the  ridge  marked  17 
enters  the  pattern,  it  is  an  Outside  Whorl.  In  the  impression  there  were 
found  18  points  of  identity. 

5.  Figures  95  and  96  show  the  right  index  of  Frederick  Smith, 
developed  from  a  mark  found  on  a  candle,  and  furnishing  16  points  of 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


273 


identity.     The  pattern  is  a  Whorl,  but  its  tracing  cannot  be  determined 
from  the  illustration  we  have. 

6.  Figures  98  and  99  show  the  print  of  the  right  little  finger  of 
one  Mitchell,  a  burglar.  Seeking  to  break  into  a  certain  warehouse  in 
London  he  had  to  climb  over  a  gate  10  feet  high.  Along  the  top  of  the 


FIGURE  90.     Print  taken  of  the  left  index  pattern  of  George  Brown.     Com- 
pare with  the  previous  figure,  and  note  the  14  points  of  identity.      (From  Scotland 
Yard,  London.) 

gate  was  a  row  of  iron  spikes.  He  successfully  climbed  the  gate,  but  in 
his  attempt  to  reach  the  ground  on  the  inner  side  he  placed  his  feet  on  the 
center  cross-bar  of  the  gate,  at  the  same  time  holding  one  of  the  spikes 
with  his  right  hand.  While  in  this  position  he  fell,  and  the  ring  worn  on 
the  right  little  finger  caught  on  the  spike,  causing  him  to  remain  sus- 
pended in  the  air  until  his  weight  tore  the  finger  from  the  hand.  He 


Personal  Identification 


escaped,  but  the  ring  and  the  finger  were  found  on  the  spike  (Figure  97). 
The  print  taken  of  the  finger  was  that  of  an  Ulnar  Loop  with  eleven  ridges 
between  the  delta  and  the  Core.  Successful  search  was  made  in  classi- 


fication formula 


1     U     (IO)      11 


and  in  consequence  an  arrest  was  soon 


1     U     (II) 

made.  It  was  then  discovered  that  the  prisoner  had  recently  lost  his 
right  little  finger.  The  reader  will  see  at  once  that  in  making  search 
to  see  if  the  unknown  burglar  was  on  file,  only  those  slips  having  an  Ulnar 


FIGURE  91.     Enlarged  photograph  of  a  finger  mark  on  glass. 
(From  Scotland  Yard,  London.) 

Loop  on  the  right  little  finger  needed  to  be  looked  at,  and  the  ridge  count 
of  eleven  narrowed  the  search  still  further. 

7.  The  circumstances  of  the  Deptford  murders  are  as  follows:  In 
1905  a  man  and  his  wife  were  murdered  in  their  bed  at  a  house  in  Dept- 
ford, London.  They  were  in  the  habit  of  placing  their  money  each  night 
in  a  small  cash-box  kept  under  a  pillow  of  the  bed.  After  the  murders 
the  cash-box  was  found  in  the  bedroom  broken  open  and  the  money  gone. 
On  the  side  of  its  inner  tray  was  a  faint  digital  mark  (Figure  100),  which 
was  immediately  photographed.  Subsequently  two  brothers  named 
Stratton  were  arrested  on  suspicion,  it  being  known  to  the  police  that 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


275 


they  were  in  the  locality  at  the  time  the  murders  must  have  been  com- 
mitted. Their  finger  prints  were  taken,  and  the  right  thumb  print  of 
Alfred,  one  of  the  brothers  (Figure  101),  was  found  to  be  identical  with 
the  mark  on  the  cash  box.  No  one  saw  either  of  these  men  go  into  the 
house  or  leave  it.  The  finger  print  evidence  not  only  discovered  who  were 
the  authors  of  this  crime,  but  furnished  the  evidence  to  convict.  Later 
they  were  convicted  of  the  murders  and  both  were  executed. 


FIGURE  92.  Enlarged  photograph  of  a  print  of  the  right 
index  ringer  of  William  Simpson.  Compare  with  the  accidental 
imprint  shown  in  the  preceding  figure,  and  check  up  the  15 
points  of  identity.  (From  Scotland  Yard,  London.) 

These  wonderful  reproductions  from  Scotland  Yard  are  doubtless 
from  among  the  best  ones  that  they  have  had  to  do  with.  It  is  seldom 
that  accidental  imprints  are  met  with  that  are  anywhere  near  as  good  as 
these.  The  authors  have  seen  accidental  imprints  that  were  developed, 
where  not  one  detail  could  be  checked  up ;  nevertheless  they  had  a  certain 
value,  as  they  were  of  similar  patterns  to  those  of  the  accused,  and  pre- 
vented a  claim  of  "Non-Identity"  from  being  advanced. 

In  obtaining  imprints  of  a  suspected  person  to  compare  wkh  some 


276 


Personal  Identification 


chance  impressions,  after  taking  the  bulb  impressions,  take  a  set  of  rolled 
imprints  from  each  finger  its  whole  length,  then  prints  of  the  palms,  be- 
cause accidental  imprints  may  have  been  made  by  some  part  of  the  ridged 
surface  of  the  hand,  other  than  the  bulbs  of  the  fingers.  Headquarters 
at  Boston,  Mass.,  have  photographed  four  digital  marks  of  a  burglar 
from  the  left  index,  middle,  ring  and  little  fingers,  made  by  dirty 


FIGURE  93.     Enlarged  photograph  of  two  marks  of  the  same  finger,  slightly  over- 
laping,  found  on  a  box.     (From  Scotland  Yard,  London.) 

fingers  on  white  painted  woodwork,  and  under  the  circumstances  they  are 
very  clear  and  distinct  (Figure  102). 

At  one  time  one  of  the  authors  discovered  a  faint  ridge  imprint  in 
dried  blood  on  the  black  handle  of  a  razor,  that  had  escaped  observation  for 
four  months  after  a  certain  murder.  Some  thirteen  months  later  an  expert 
photographer  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  photograph  by  using  a  vertical 
camera,  with  Wratten  and  Wainwright  pan-chromatic  plates  and  a  Red 
A  filter.  The  impression  was  irregular  in  shape,  and  measured  about 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


277 


llmm  x  5mm.  The  photograph  was  made  in  daylight  and  under  the 
circumstances  was  a  remarkable  success  (Figure  103).  In  obtaining  photo- 
graphs of  accidental  imprints,  the  most  expert  photographer  that  can  be 
found  should  be  employed,  as  it  will  be  the  cheapest  in  the  end.  A  word 
of  caution:  all  accidental  imprints  before  and  after  developing  should 
be  protected  from  friction,  as  many  such  are  spoiled  by  failing  to  observe 


FIGURE  94.  Enlarged  imprint  of  the  right  thumb  of  George  Lane.  Compare 
with  the  marks  on  the  box,  shown  in  the  preceding  figure,  and  check  up  the  18 
points  of  identity.  (From  Scotland  Yard.) 


this  common  sense  precaution.  The  surest  method  to  preserve  such  im- 
pressions is  to  spray  them  with  a  shellac  fixative  immediately  after  de- 
velopment, exactly  as  artists  treat  crayon  drawings.  The  proper  fixative 
for  this  purpose,  together  with  a  sprayer  with  which  to  distribute  it,  may 
be  obtained  at  any  art  store. 

The  authors  have  made  reversed  photographs  by  taking  enlargements 
printed  on  single  thickness  of  photograph  paper,  the  ridges  being  shown 


1?7S 


Personal  Identification 


by  white  lines,  and,  using  such  photographs  as  negatives,  placing  the 
sensitized  paper  back  of  the  paper  negative,  the  sensitized  surface  in  con- 
tact with  the  back  of  the  photograph  that  is  to  be  reversed.  In  making 


FIGURE  95.     Photograph  of  a  finger  mark,  found  on  a  candle,  enlarged  5 
diameters.     (From  Scotland  Yard,  London.) 


*  SMITH 


FIGURE  96.  Finger  print  from  the  right  index  finger  of  Frederick  Smith,  en- 
larged 5  diameters.  Compare  with  the  accidental  mark  from  the  candle,  above 
this,  and  check  up  the  16  points  of  identity.  (From  Scotland  Yard.) 

such  reversals  by  daylight  there  is  no  trouble  in  printing  through  the 
paper  negative.  Engineering  houses,  and  blue  and  black  print  operators, 
have  a  regular  negative  paper,  very  thin,  which  they  use  in  making  dupli- 
cate sets  of  engineering  drawings,  etc. 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


279 


Similar  to  the  seven  cases  reported  from  New  Scotland  Yard  are 
numerous  ones  from  France,  but  the  limits  of  this  chapter  prevent  any 
extended  reference  to  them.  Two,  however,  are  of  such  importance  that 
a  brief  mention  of  them  must  be  given. 

1.     The  Scheffer  case.    A  servant  was   murdered  in  the  office  of  a 


FIGURES  97-99.  In  the  upper  figure  (Figure  97)  is  shown 
the  ten-foot  gate  where  the  right  little  finger  was  found.  This 
was  held  in  place  on  the  spike  indicated  by  the  arrow  by 
means  of  a  finger  ring,  which  was  caught  over  the  spike. 
The  left  lower  figure  (Figure  98)  shows  the  print  taken  from 
the  amputated  finger,  and  the  right,  lower  figure  (Figure 
99)  shows  the  print  of  the  right  little  finger  of  Mitchell,  the 
burglar,  on  file  at  the  time  in  Scotland  Yard.  (From  Scot- 
land Yard.) 


280 


Personal  Identification 


dentist  on  the  17th  of  October,  1902,  and  M.  Bertillon  found  the  imprints 
of  four  bloody  fingers  on  a  window  pane,  thumb,  index,  middle  and  ring 
fingers.  These  he  photographed,  and  after  a  patient  research  in  the  collec- 
tion of  prints,  he  identified  these  as  having  been  made  by  an  old  offender 


FIGURE  100.     Photographic  enlargement  of  a  finger  mark  on  a  cash 
box.     Associated  with  the  Deptford  murder.      (From  Scotland  Yard.) 


FIGURE  101.  Photographic  enlargement  of  the  right  thumb  of  Alfred 
Stratton,  who,  with  his  brother,  was  hanged  for  the  Deptford  mur- 
der in  1905  in  London.  (From  Scotland  Yard.) 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


281 


named  Scheffer:  who  confessed  that  he  committed  the  crime.  This 
was  one  of  the  earliest  cases  on  record  of  the  discovery  of  the  author  of  a 
crime  by  imprints  left  by  him  at  the  place  where  the  crime  was  committed. 


FIGURE  102.  Accidental  impressions  of  the  four  dirty  fingers  of  a  left 
hand  on  white  woodwork.  To  bring  all  four  of  the  finger  prints  into  the 
photograph  the  impression  of  the  little  finger  was  cut  apart  and  aligned 
with  the  others.  (From  Boston,  Mass.) 

2.  The  Mayor  case.  A  murder  was  committed  in  the  City  of  Lyons, 
and  there  was  no  clue  except  a  finger  mark  on  a  broken  glass  bottle  that 
was  used  in  committing  the  murder.  This  was  developed  by  M.  Edmond 
Locard,  the  Director  of  the  Police  Laboratory  there,  and  was  found  to 


a  b 

Figure  103  a.      Photograph  of  a  section  cf  the  razor  with  which   Henry 
W.  Ward  was  killed  at  New  Haven  Jc.,  Vt.,  Dec.  9,  1912.      The  handle  of 
the  razor  is  black,  and  bloody  finger  marks  are  shown  white    in  the  photograph. 
Figure  103  6.      The  bloody  finger  marks  enlarged  4  diameters. 

be  from  the  left  ring  finger  of  an  old  offender  named  Mayor.  The  im- 
print showed  the  whole  of  the  bulb  and  about  half  of  the  second  phalange 
of  the  finger  in  question.  The  imprint  was  studied  and  carefully  compared 
with  a  print  from  the  same  finger  of  Mayor,  and  there  were  identified  82 
points  of  similarity  between  the  two  (Figures  104  and  105). 


•JS'J 


Personal  Identification 


FIGURE  104.       Impression   of  the  left  ring  finger  of   Mayor,  the  assassin,   taken 
directly  from  the  finger  of  the  man. 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


283 


35 


Figure  105.      Enlargement  from  an  accidental  imprint  on  the  neck  of  a  broken  glass 
bottle.      This  is  identi6ed  as  the  same  as  Fig.  104,  by  82  points  of  identity. 


Personal  Identification 


A  long  list,  similar  to  the  Scheffer  and  Mayor  cases,  has  been  reported 
from  France,  equally  interesting  and  of  equal  value  with  the  two  just 
mentioned.  In  Germany  there  are  numerous  police  laboratories,  not 
surpassed  anywhere,  with  many  interesting  cases  reported.  Belgium, 
Switzerland,  Italy,  Argentina,  Spain,  all  find  uses  for  this  incomparable 
method  of  proof. 

In  the  United  States  there  are  cases  of  the  same  kind,  in  number  so 
great  as  to  cause  embarrassment  to  the  authors  as  to  which  should  be 


FIGURE  106.     Plain  impression  of  the  four  fingers  of  the  left 
hand  of  Thomas  Jennings,  in  the  possession  of  the  Police  of  Chicago. 

selected  for  illustration.     Out  of  this  great   number   the  following  cases 
have  been  chosen: 

1.  The  Case  of  Thomas  Jennings.  Up  to  December,  1915  the  most 
important  case  in  the  United  States,  that  finger  prints  have  entered  into, 
was  undoubtedly  that  of  Thomas  Jennings,  a  negro,  who  was  hanged  Febru- 
ary 16,  1912,  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  for  the  murder  of  Clarence  B.  Killer.  The 
victim  was  killed  in  his  own  home,  1837  W.  104th  St.  in  that  city.  The 
murder  was  committed  by  shooting  about  2.35  A.  M.,  September  19,  1910, 
and  about  twenty  minutes  later  a  colored  man  in  a  high  state  of  excitement 
was  arrested  some  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  place  of  the  murder. 
The  arresting  officers  had  not  then  heard  of  the  homicide;  the  suspicious 
appearance  of  the  man  was  what  caused  his  arrest.  On  his  person  was  a 
fully  loaded  38  caliber  revolver,  showing  signs  of  having  been  recently  dis- 
charged. The  prisoner  was  an  ex-convict,  out  on  parole  from  the  peniten- 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


285 


tiary,  having  previously  been  convicted  of  many  cases  of  burglary.  Before 
he  was  sent  to  prison  his  finger  prints  had  been  taken,  and  again  after  this 
last  arrest  (Figure  106).  Mr.  Hiller  was  shot  with  bullets  of  38  caliber,  after 


FIGURE  107.  Impressions  of  the  left  index,  middle, 
ring,  and  little  fingers,  found  on  the  newly  painted  rail  of 
the  porch  at  the  Hiller  home  after  the  murder  of  Mr.  Hiller. 
Natural  size. 

rolling  down  the  front  stairs  grappling  with  the  unknown  burglar.  Entrance 
was  gained  through  a  rear  window  and  the  murderer  escaped  through  a  front 
window.  The  Hiller  home  had  been  recently  painted,  a  porch  in  the  rear 


FIGURE  108.     Diagrammatic  drawing  of   Fig.     106,    but  with 
the  points  of  identity  with  the  porch  rail  impression  marked;  33  in  all. 

having  been  finished  about  36  hours  before  the  shooting.  During  the  day 
after  the  murder,  Captain  Michael  Evans  and  his  son,  William  M.  Evans, 
discovered  the  imprints  of  the  left  index,  left  middle,  left  ring  and  left  little 


286  Personal  Identification 


fingers  of  some  person  on  the  newly  painted  porch  rail.  That  part  of  the 
rail  was  sawed  out,  taken  to  Police  Headquarters  and  an  enlarged  photo- 
graph was  made  of  the  impressions  thereon  (Figure  107).  An  enlarged 
photograph  was  also  made  ot  the  prints  from  the  corresponding  fingers 
of  the  accused  (Figure  106),  and  from  this  enlarged  photograph  of 
Jennings'  finger  prints  a  diagramatic  drawing  of  the  same  size  was  made. 
(Figure  108.)  The  left  index  finger  of  Jennings  was  a  Whorl,  the  re- 
maining three  fingers  being  Ulnar  Loops.  The  same  class  of  patterns  were 
found  in  the  corresponding  impressions  on  the  porch  rail.  In  checking 
up  the  characteristic  details  from  these  impressions,  the  experts  found 
33  points  of  identity  in  the  impressions  from  the  porch  rail  that  cor- 
responded with  those  of  the  accused.  This  correspondence  alone  would 
furnish  absolute  identity,  even  in  the  absence  of  all  other  proofs. 

The  Chicago  police  had  in  addition  built  a  strong  case  of  circumstan- 
tial evidence  around  the  accused;  although  it  is  doubtful  if  by  that  alone 
a  verdict  of  guilty  could  have  been  obtained.  At  the  time  of  the  trial 
the  attorneys  for  Jennings  objected  to  the  introduction  of  the  finger-print 
evidence,  the  principal  objection  being  that  he  "was  compelled  to  give 
his  prints  to  the  police  in  violation  of  his  rights."  The  jury  found  Jennings 
guilty  on  the  first  ballot,  eleven  were  for  capital  punishment  and  one  for 
imprisonment  for  life.  On  the  third  ballot  the  jury  were  unanimous  for 
capital  punishment,  and  one  of  the  jurymen  was  reported  as  saying,  "It 
was  the  finger  prints  and  the  finger  prints  alone  that  convinced  us  of  Jennings' 
guilt." 

The  case  was  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  who  found,  in 
an  extended  review  of  the  case,  that  no  error  had  been  made,  and  in  part 
said  as  follows:  "No  one  of  these  circumstances,  considered  alone,  would 
be  conclusive  of  guilt,  but  when  all  the  facts  and  circumstances  introduced 
in  evidence  are  considered  together,  the  jury  were  justified  in  believing 
that  a  verdict  of  guilty  should  follow  as  a  logical  sequence."  The  mem- 
bers of  the  Court  were  disposed  to  hold,  "  That  there  is  a  scientific  basis 
for  the  system  of  finger-print  identification,  and  that  the  Courts  are  justified 
in  admitting  this  class  of  evidence." 

In  the  possession  of  the  authors  are  editorials  from  two  different  news- 
papers, each  having  a  large  circulation  and  great  influence.  Both  edi- 
torials concerned  this  case  of  Thomas  Jennings.  One  is  headed  "An  Out- 
rageous Conviction,"  the  other  one  headed  "Fancy  Detective  Work." 
In  all  charity  for  the  editorial  writers,  the  authors  can  only  suggest  that 
the  articles  were  written  by  men  not  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  subject. 

2.  The  Case  of  Charles  Crispi.  The  newspapers  of  New  York  City 
have  recorded  two  cases  of  great  interest  here.  The  first  is  that  of  the 
burglar  Charles  Crispi,  who  took  out  a  pane  of  glass  from  a  door,  placed  it 
carefully  aside,  reached  in,  and  unlocked  the  door.  Crispi  was  so  careful 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


287 


in  handling  this  pane  of  glass  that  he  left  finger  marks  upon  it.  After 
one  of  these  was  developed  (Figure  110)  an  officer  at  Headquarters  found 
its  duplicate  in  the  files  (Figure  109),  and  Crispi  was  arrested  for  the  crime. 
At  the  trial  a  demonstration  was  made  in  the  Court  Room,  and  Crispi, 
realizing  that  he  had  made  marks  on  the  glass  that  no  other  man  in  the 
world  could  have  made,  confessed  his  guilt  then  and  there,  upon  being 
questioned  by  the  presiding  judge.  This  burglary  was  committed  Feb- 
ruary 21,  1911,  at  171  Wooster  St.  Crispi's  trial  came  later,  and  on  the 


FIGURES  109,  110.  Two  finger  prints  made  by  the  same  criminal, 
Charles  Crispi.  Figure  109  (on  the  left)  was  made  at  Police  Headquarters, 
New  York  City,  and  Figure  1 10  (on  the  right)  was  made  involuntarily  upon 
a  piece  of  glass.  There  are  16  points  of  identity. 

19th  of  May,  1911,  Judge  Rosalsky  sentenced  Crispi  to  six  months  in  the 
penitentiary. 

3.  The  Print  in  the  Rose  Bowl.  The  case  of  the  " Rose  Bowl  Burglar" 
is  still  more  interesting.  There  was  a  burglary  committed  in  Brooklyn  by 
unknown  burglars,  and  a  heavy  cut  glass  rose  bowl  had  been  moved  by  one 
of  them.  On  the  smooth  surface  of  the  inside  of  the  bowl  was  found  an  im- 
print (Figure  112),  thought  to  be  that  of  a  thumb,  but  a  search  of  the  files  at 
Headquarters  failed  to  find  its  duplicate.  Some  months  later  there  was  a 
burglary  in  New  York  City,  in  which  a  woman  was  killed,  and  one  of  the 
burglars  was  shot  and  another  captured.  Both  were  finger-printed,  and  the 
injured  burglar  declared  that  this  was  his  first  offence,  that  he  had  been  led 
into  it  by  his  companion.  Search  in  the  files  failed  to  find  duplicates  of  his 


JSS 


Personal  Identification 


prints,  and  the  officials'  were  about  ready  to  believe  his  story  of  a  first  of- 
fence, when  it  flashed  into  the  mind  of  the  investigating  officer,  that  there 
was  something  very  familiar  about  one  of  his  thumb  prints  (Figure  111),  and 
that  it  resembled  the  imprint  on  the  inside  of  the  rose  bowl  that  had  been 
examined  some  months  before.  The  officer  was  soon  at  the  bedside  of 
the  wounded  burglar,  and  asked  him  why  he  failed  to  take  the  rose  bowl 
away  in  that  burglary  in  Brooklyn  some  months  before.  Taken  by  sur- 
prise the  burglar  blurted  out,  "It  was  too  heavy."  The  most  interesting 
thing  about  this  case  was  the  ability  of  the  officer  to  remember  the  im- 
print that  he  had  not  seen  for  some  time,  on  seeing  its  duplicate;  it  is  all 


FIGURES  111,  112.  Two  thumb  prints  of  a  certain  man;  the  one  on  the  left, 
Figure  111,  was  made  at  Police  Headquarters,  New  York  City;  that  on  the  right, 
Figure  112,  was  made  involuntarily  upon  a  glass  rose  bowl  in  Flatbush,  N.  Y  The 
slight  distortion  of  this  last  is  due  to  the  curvature  of  the  rose  bowl.  Twenty-nine 
points  of  identification. 

the  more  wonderful  when  it  is  considered  that  the  photograph  of  the  im- 
print from  the  rose  bowl  was  considerably  distorted  owing  to  the  interior 
of  the  bowl  being  concave.  This  case  is  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that 
an  expert  comes  to  remember  the  peculiarities  of  a  finger  print  just  the 
same  as  he  remembers  the  peculiarities  of  a  face.  Both  this  and  the  last 
are  illustrations  of  that  interesting  class  of  cases  where  the  authors  of 
the  crimes  were  discovered  by  the  sole  initiative  of  the  Police  Bureau  of 
Identification. 

4.  The  "Axe  Man"  Burglar.  A  most  interesting  case  happened  in 
Somerville,  Mass.,  in  the  fall  of  1913.  There  had  been  many  breaks  made 
in  a  crude  but  effectual  manner,  where  the  unknown  burglar  would  break  in 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development 


289 


a  door  with  an  axe.  Crude  as  the  methods  were,  there  was  no  clue  until  one 
morning  Captain  Eugene  A.  Carter  found  the  imprint  of  the  bulb  of  a  left 
index  finger,  together  with  a  part  of  the  left  middle  finger,  on  a  window 
pane.  He  immediately  developed  these  marks  with  gray  powder,  had  an  en- 
larged photograph  made,  and  from  that  a  reversed  photograph  was  made  to 
show  the  ridge  lines  in  black  (Figure  113).  This  was  sent  to  Mr.  R.  C^ 


FIGURE  113.  Enlargement  of  a 
chance  impression  made  by  the  "Axe  Man 
Burglar"  upon  a  pane  of  glass  in  Somer- 
ville,  Mass.  Developed  by  Captain 
Carter  of  the  Somerville,  Mass.,  Police. 

Hill,  in  charge  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Bureau  of  Criminal  Identifica- 
tion at  the  State  House  in  Boston.  On  October  30,  1913,  after  many 
weeks  of  disappointing  search,  although  aided  by  suggestions  from  the 
Somerville  Police  Department,  Mr.  Hill  was  fortunate  in  finding  a  dupli- 
cate (Figure  114).  The  unknown  burglar  was  a  young  fellow  well  known 
in  Somerville,  and  having  relatives  living  there.  Circulars  with  photo- 
graphs and  duplicates  of  his  finger  prints  were  sent  broadcast,  and  not 
long  after  the  young  fellow,  in  total  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  the  Police 
knew  of  his  crimes,  returned  to  Somerville.  He  was  arrested  December 


290 


Personal  Identification 


18,  1913,  soon  after  his  return.  He  confessed  and  informed  the  authorities 
who  the  receiver  of  the  stolen  property  was.  The  young  fellow  on  a  later 
date  was  sentenced  to  30  months  in  jail. 

Too  much  credit  cannot  be  given  to  Captain  Carter  in  the  first  instance 
for  his  promptness,  and  to  Mr.  Hill  for  the  long  tiresome  search,  that 
finally  resulted  in  success.  This  criminal,  from  the  methods  used,  was 


FIGURE  114.  Print  of  the  left  index  finger  of  the  "Axe  man 
burglar."  Mr.  R.  C.  Hill  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Bureau  of 
Identification  discovered  the  identity  of  this  print  with  the  chance 
impression  from  Somerville,  just  figured  (Figure  113),  using  only 
the  small  area  included  within  the  line. 

given  the  name  of  the  "Axe  Man  Burglar"  by  the  police,  before  his  iden- 
tity became  known. 

5.  A  Burglary  at  Portland,  Me.  In  the  city  of  Portland,  Me.,  in  the 
fall  of  1913,  a  burglary  was  committed.  The  burglar  left  a  rather  frag- 
mentary digital  impression  on  a  window  pane.  This  was  developed  by  Mr. 
Herman  A.  Haskell  of  the  Bureau  of  Identification  of  that  place,  and  after 
a  long  search  the  duplicate  was  found,  and  the  man  arrested.  Upon  mak- 
ing the  arrest  some  of  the  stolen  property  was  found  in  his  possession. 


Accidental  Impressions  and  their  Development  291 

This  is  one  of  the  best  illustrations  known  to  the  authors,  of  discovering  the 
author  of  a  crime  by  the  sole  initiative  of  the  Police  Identification  Bureau. 

6.  Proving  an  Alibi  by  Means  of  Finger  Prints.     The  two  following 
clearly  show  how  the  innocent  are  protected  by  the  comparison  of  im- 
pressions found  at  the  scene  of  the  crime. 

In  the  year  1911,  at  Colorado  Springs,  one  man,  two  women,  and  two 
children  were  killed  with  an  axe.  The  murderer  left  bloody  finger  prints 
on  the  handle  of  this  weapon.  The  husband  of  one  of  the  women  was 
arrested  for  the  crime,  but  a  comparison  of  his  finger  prints  with  those  on 
the  axe-handle  showed  so  great  a  difference  that  he  was  immediately  re- 
leased from  custody. 

7.  Finger  Marks  on  a  Lamp  Chimney;    Another  Alibi.     In  Winne- 
bago,  Ills.,  a  few  years  ago,  Mrs.  Margaret  Griffin  was  murdered  in  her 
own  home.     The  murderer  left  finger  marks  on  the  door,  and  also  on  a 
lamp  chimney  in  the  house.     A  neighbor,  William  Reilly,  who  went  to 
Chicago  soon  after  the  murder,  was  arrested  for  the  crime,  but  a  comparison 
of  his  finger  prints  with  those  left  on  the  scene  of  the  crime  showed  the  two 
to  be  entirely  dissimilar,  and  Reilly  was  released  from  custody. 

It  is  very  likely  that,  in  the  last  two  illustrations,  the  two  murderers 
had  very  different  types  of  finger  patterns  from  those  of  the  men  upon 
whom  suspicion  first  fell;  yet,  even  though  the  prints  had  been  strikingly 
similar  to  the  naked  eye,  the  result  would  have  been  the  same,  although 
the  innocent  suspects  could  not  expect  to  have  their  innocence  proven  so 
easily,  or  their  discharge  to  occur  so  promptly.  The  microscopic  agree- 
ment of  the  ridge  details  is  what  furnishes  proof  of  identity,  or  of  non- 
identity,  rather  than  a  general  similarity  of  patterns,  and  for  this  time  and 
patience  are  required. 

The  examples  here  cited  are  necessarily  but  few,  taken  from  here  and 
there  to  illustrate  the  principles.  A  careful  study,  embracing  the  important 
cases  of  any  one  of  our  larger  cities,  like  Boston,  New  York,  Chicago,  or 
Philadelphia,  would  require  each  a  long  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

POROSCOPY;  THE  USE  OF  SWEAT-PORES  IN  IDENTIFICATION 

"  Postremum  examinanda  occurrit  manus,  in  cujus  vola  elatce  qucedam 
rugae  diver sas  figuras  describunt;  in  extremo  tamen  digitorum  apice  spiraliter 
ductae,  si  microscopic  perquirantur,  patientia  sudoris  ora  per  medium  pro- 
tracti  dorsi  exhibent."*  —  Marcello  Malpighi ;  De  externo  tactus  organo, 
etc.,  London,  1686. 

"II  est  en  ejfet  etabli  que  les  traces  des  orifices  sudoripares  constituent 
dans  I'empreinte  digitate  des  reperes  qui  offrent  les  memes  garanties  que  les 
points  caracteristiques  (bifurcations,  Uots,  naissance  de  lignes)  consideres 
jusqud  present.  Les  pores,  toujours  identiques  a  eux-memes  sur  un  sujet 
donne,  ne  se  modifient  ni  par  Page,  ni  par  I'usure,  ni  par  les  phlogoses;  ils 
sont  differents  d'un  sujet  a  V outre  par  leurs  dimensions,  par  leur  forme,  par 
leur  position  relativement  a  I'axe  de  la  crete,  par  leur  nombre  pour  une  unite 
de  longueur  donnee.  Ils  sont  done  un  complement  precieux  de  la  preuve 
dactyloscopique:  ils  peuvent  y  supplier  pour  les  empreintes  ires  fragmen- 
taires."  f  —  Edmond  Locard,  La  Preuve  Judiciaire  par  les  Empreintes 
digitales,  Lyons,  1914,  p.  10. 

THUS  far  our  attention  has  been  directed  mainly  to  the  study  of 
printed  impressions  of  the  friction-skin  surface,  as  they  appear  on 
paper.     For  the  still  more  detailed  study  that  may  be  necessary 
in  the  identification  of  only  a  few  ridges,  with,  perhaps,  no  pattern  at  all 
(for  even  this  is  at  times  possible),  the  attention  must  be  directed  to  the 
actual  skin  surface,  and  its  details  followed  by  the  aid  of  the  microscope. 
As  a  first  lesson  the  reader  should  examine  his  own  fingers  with  the 
aid  of  a  pocket  magnifier  having  a  power  of  5  to  7  diameters.     The  sur- 
face to  be  examined  should  be  held  so  that  the  light  strikes  obliquely  across 

*We  come  at  last  to  the  examination  of  the  hand,  in  the  palm  of  which  certain 
raised  ridges  describe  various  figures;  those,  moreover,  which  are  arranged  spirally 
at  the  ends  of  the  fingers,  when  examined  with  the  microscope,  display  the  open  mouths 
of  sweat-glands,  arranged  in  a  line  along  the  middle.  (Free  translation.) 

t  It  is  in  fact  established  that  the  traces  of  the  sweat  pores  in  the  finger  print  con- 
stitute points  of  identification  that  offer  the  same  guarantees  as  do  the  characteristic 
points  considered  up  to  the  present  (forks,  ends,  islands).  The  pores,  always  the  same 
in  a  given  subject,  are  modified  by  neither  age,  use,  nor  disease;  they  differ  from  one 
subject  to  another  in  their  form,  their  size,  their  position  relative  to  the  axis  of  the  ridge, 
and  their  number  in  a  unit  of  length.  They  are  then  a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  dactylos- 
copic proof;  they  can  even  supplement  it  in  the  case  of  very  fragmentary  imprints. 

292 


Poroscopy 


293 


it,  thus  bringing  out  the  relief  by  casting  shadows,  while  the  observer 
should  be  so  placed  that  the  light  comes  from  behind  him,  so  that  it  will 
not  shine  in  his  eyes. 

Thus  seen,  the  surface  of  the  friction-skin  will  appear  something  like 
corduroy  velvet,  consisting  of  a  series  of  rounded  ridges  or  half-cylinders, 
lying  in  direct  contact  with  one  another  and  separated  by  line-like  furrows 


FIGURE  115.  Diagrams  showing  the  princi- 
ples involved  in  making  a  print  of  friction  ridges. 
In  A  the  pressure  is  slight,  and  the  inked  surface 
forms  a  very  narrow  band  along  the  crests  of  the 
ridges.  B  shows  about  the  right  amount  of  pres- 
sure, which  flattens  fully  half  of  the  surface  of  the 
ridge,  and  makes  the  inked  strips  about  as  wide  as 
the  intervals.  In  C  the  pressure  has  been  so  great 
that  the  ridges  are  so  flattened  and  squeezed  togeth- 
er as  to  form  a  continuous  inked  surface,  the  in- 
tervals being  marked  simply  by  narrow  lines,  blacker 
than  the  rest.  (Drawn  by  Alice  Miriam  Hudson} 


294 


Personal  Identification 


of  no  appreciable  breadth.  These  long,  semi-cylindrical  ridges  are  like 
elastic  cushions,  and  become  more  or  less  flattened  by  varying  degrees  of 
pressure,  but  regain  their  original  shape  the  instant  the  pressure  is  removed. 
When,  now,  these  cushions  are  pressed  against  an  inked  plate  of  glass 
or  cardboard,  the  ridges  become  more  or  less  covered  with  ink  in  propor- 
tion to  the  pressure  employed.  If  but  lightly  touched,  the  ink  becomes 
deposited  upon  only  the  highest  crests  of  the  ridges  (Figure  115,  A);  if 


FIGURE  116.  Pattern  of  right  middle  finger  of  "Bangor  Billy," 
showing  the  appearance  of  the  actual  ridges  as  seen  upon  the  finger. 
Compare  with  Figure  126  of  the  next  chapter. 

the  pressure  is  a  little  greater,  more  of  the  breadth  of  each  cushion  be- 
comes inked  (Figure  115,  B),  while  a  large  amount  of  pressure  so  flattens 
the  cushions  that  the  flattened  surfaces  come  in  contact  with  one  another, 
forming  an  almost  continuous  flat  surface,  which  receives  the  ink  like 
an  unbroken  plane,  save  for  the  thin  lines  between  the  ridges,  which  hold 
a  little  more  ink  than  the  rest  (Figure  115,  C).  In  printing  these  upon 
white  paper,  and  using  always  as  much  pressure  as  upon  the  inked  sur- 
face, the  first  case  (A)  leaves  a  set  of  narrow  lines,  the  second  (B)  a  series 
of  broad  lines,  with  white  bands  of  about  the  same  breadth  between  them, 


295 


and  the  third  (C)  a  continuous  black  surface,  traversed  by  parallel  lines 
still  blacker,  where  the  furrows  hold  the  extra  ink,  the  principle  being 
similar  to  the  use  of  an  engraved  steel  plate. 

The  mechanical  principles  involved  in  this  brief  study  will  not  only 


FIGURE  117.  Pattern  of  the  right  middle  finger  of  J.  C.,  showing  the  appearance 
of  the  actual  ridges,  as  seen  upon  the  finger.  Compare  with  the  previous  figure;  also 
with  Figure  136  of  the  next  chapter. 

show  the  reader  why  different  prints,  and  different  parts  of  the  same  print, 
are  very  different  in  appearance,  but  will  demonstrate  clearly  that  a  print 
does  not  give  a  correct  idea  of  the  real  skin  surface,  but  only  serves  to 
locate  the  ridges  by  means  of  lines  that  run  lengthwise  through  their 
highest  crests.  The  actual  ridges  in  a  finger  pattern,  as  they  appear  on 
the  skin  surface,  are  shown  in  the  two  figures  here  given  (Figures  116  and 


296 


Personal  Identification 


117),  which  give  the  ridge  details  of  two  similar  Ulnar  Loops,  taken  from 
the  right  middle  fingers  of  two  different  men,  and  show  the  ridge  counts 
and  the  separate  features.  Even  for  a  finger-print  expert  who  works  all 
the  time  with  prints,  such  drawings  are  hard  to  understand,  for  the  lines, 


FIGURE  118.  Diagram  showing  the  microscopic  structure  of  friction  skin.  On 
the  surface  are  shown  four  and  a  half  ridges,  the  one  on  the  right  represented  as  split 
longitudinally.  The  end  of  a  fifth  ridge  projects  into  the  field,  and  the  first  ridge  on 
the  left  shows  the  formation  of  an  island,  resulting  from  an  incomplete  fusion  of  one 
element.  The  epidermis  consists  of  two  main  layers,  the  stratum  corneum  (horny 
layer),  covering  the  surface,  and  the  stratum  mucosum  (mucous  layer)  beneath.  This 
latter  is  folded  on  its  under  surface  so  as  to  form  ridges  that  run  lengthwise,  and  cor- 
respond to  the  surface  ridges,  but  are  twice  as  numerous,  since  deeper  ridges  that  corre- 
spond to  the  middle  of  the  surface  ridges  alternate  with  smaller  ones,  that  correspond 
to  the  furrows  above.  On  the  right,  where  a  surface  ridge  is  cut  along  the  middle,  a 
deeper  ridge  of  the  under  surface  is  cut  lengthwise  also.  On  the  surface,  sweat-pores 
run  in  single  rows  along  the  ridges,  and  communicate  through  sweat  ducts  with  the 
coiled  sweat  glands,  which  lie  quite  below  the  entire  epidermis  in  the  cutis,  or  leather 
skin.  Nerves  of  touch  run  up  through  the  cutis  and  terminate  in  tactile  corpuscles, 
the  ultimate  organs  of  touch,  in  the  furrows  between  the  ridges.  The  friction  ridges 
themselves  result  from  the  fusion  in  rows  of  separate  epidermic  elements  like  the  island 
shown  on  the  left,  each  with  a  sweat  gland  in  the  center. 

representing  the  furrows,  all  come  in  the  wrong  place,  i.  e.,  between  the 
ones  they  are  accustomed  to.  They  are,  however,  drawings  of  the  actual 
surface  of  the  friction-skin,  and  as  such  should  be  well  understood. 

Midway  between  the  lines  marking  the  furrows  are  found  the  mouths 
of  the  sweat  glands,  the  pores,  which  lie  in  a  longitudinal  row  along  each 


Poroscopy  297 

ridge,  at  about  equal  distances  apart.  They  are  le^t  out  of  these  pictures 
for  the  sake  of  clearness,  but  may  be  easily  seen  upon  the  actual  skin  sur- 
face by  the  aid  of  a  low  magnification,  and  can  sometimes  be  detected  by 
the  unaided  eye  in  the  case  of  the  larger  and  coarser  ridges.  In  an  ex- 
ceptionally good  print  these  openings  are  seen  as  minute  white  dots  run- 
ning along  the  black  ridges  (in  Figure  92,  for  example),  or  as  black  dots  on 
the  white  ridges  when  the  colors  are  reversed  (Figure  119).  These  mouths 
are  the  terminal  ends  of  tubular  glands  of  microscopic  size,  each  of  which 
forms  a  complicated  coil  in  the  deeper  layer  of  the  skin,  the  cutis  or  corium, 
and  come  up  through  the  upper  layer,  the  epidermis,  as  a  slight  spiral, 
perpendicular  to  the  surface  (Figure  118).  The  ridges,  with  which  these 
pores  stand  in  definite  relation,  are  formed  in  the  lower  layer  of  the  epider- 
mis, the  stratum  mucosum,  which  forms  them,  and  from  here  they  are 
continually  renewed  as  the  surface  becomes  lost  by  the  constant  shedding 
of  the  thin  flakes  of  the  outside  epidermis,  the  stratum  corneum. 

In  the  usual  bruises  of  the  surface,  and  in  blisters,  the  skin  that  is 
lost  is  generally  the  stratum  corneum  only,  underneath  which  the  stratum 
mucosum,  with  its  ridges,  remains  uninjured,  and  soon  renews  the  outer 
layer,  naturally  in  precisely  the  same  way,  ridge  for  ridge.  A  more  serious 
injury,  involving  the  loss  of  this  lower  mother-layer,  would  naturally 
prevent  the  reformation  of  any  ridges,  but  such  an  operation  would  be  too 
deep  and  too  serious  to  be  voluntarily  undergone  over  as  large  an  extent 
of  surface  as  a  single  hand,  and  as  it  would  be  replaced,  not  by  ridges, 
but  by  a  new  growth  of  cicatricial,  or  scar,  tissue,  this  condition  would 
in  itself  mark  a  man  much  more  than  would  the  original  ridged  surface. 
It  would  also  destroy  the  sense  of  touch,  which  is  located  in  the  minute 
folds  and  papillae  of  the  cutis,  immediately  beneath  the  stratum  mucosum, 
and  thus  render  the  hands  practically  useless.  Since  a  complete  oblitera- 
tion of  these  identification  marks  would  involve  such  a  serious  maiming 
of  both  hands  and  feet,  its  attempt  in  a  desire  to  hide  the  identity  cannot 
even  be  contemplated. 

As  seen  on  the  surface  of  the  skin  at  a  low  magnification  the  sweat 
pores,  the  "patientia  sudoris  ora"  of  Malpighi's  description,  are  found  to 
vary  in  so  many  ways  that,  after  studying  a  small  area  for  a  little,  certain 
ones  of  them,  and  certain  groups,  will  take  on  an  individuality  as  great  as 
do  the  ridges  which  bear  them ;  and  because  of  this  each  small  area  may  be 
distinguished  absolutely  from  any  other.  In  fact,  we  have  in  these  minute 
structures  a  set  of  objects  upon  which,  notwithstanding  their  minuteness,  the 
positive  identification  of  a  small  patch  of  friction  skin  can  be  based,  and  this 
as  surely  as  can  be  done  with  the  ridge  detail  studied  in  the  last  chapter. 
Naturally,  considering  the  large  number  of  sweat  pores  to  come  under 
consideration,  more  than  a  thousand  in  an  average  finger  print,  there  can 
be  no  possibility  of  formulating  and  indexing  them,  yet,  in  a  specific  case, 


298  Personal  Identification 


where  an  identification  hangs  upon  an  impression  in  which  only  a  few 
ridges  may  be  clearly  made  out,  it  is  quite  possible  by  the  study  of  the 
sweat  pores  present  to  definitely  identify  this  fragment  with  a  part  of 
a  known  print  in  the  possession  of  the  investigator,  and  thus  render  cer- 
tain a  supposed  identification. 

This  method  of  Identification  by  the  Sweat  Pores,  or  Poroscopy,  has 
now  been  for  some  time  in  practical  use  at  the  Prefecture  of  Police  at  Lyons, 
France,  at  the  hands  of  Dr.  Edmond  Locard,  the  Director.  By  this  means 
he  has  aided  many  times  an  identification  made  by  the  usual  methods, 
and  in  several  cases,  notably  the  now  famous  one  of  Boudet  and  Simonin, 
has  secured  a  conviction  by  the  unanswerable  testimony  of  the  sweat 
pores. 

According  to  Locard,  the  sweat  pores  vary  in  the  following  ways : 

1.  The  size  of  the  pores.     The  size  of  the  pores  varies  apparently 
without  system,  and  pores  of  several  sizes  may  be  found  near  together. 
Locard  measured  the  diameters  of  several,  taken  from  developed  impres- 
sions, which  are  much  sharper  than  prints,  employing  the  methods  of 
microscopists,  and  using  their  unit,  the  micron,  and  found  them  to  vary 
in  diameter  from  88  to  220  micra.     The  largest  pores  had  thus  three  times 
the  diameter  and  nine  times  the  area  of  the  smallest.* 

2.  The  form  of  the  individual  pore.     In  form  a  pore  may  be  round, 
or  it  may  be  elliptical,  oval,  square,  rhomboid,  or  triangular.     In  an  ordin- 
ary inked  print  the  pores  are  usually  more  or  less  filled  with  ink,  so  that 
their  actual  shape  is  not  revealed,  but  in  an  accidental  impression,  de- 
veloped by  oxide  of  lead  or  an  equally  good  substance,  and  then  photo- 
graphed to  the  proper  enlargement,  as  in  the  illustration  here  given,  the 
individual  shapes  are  clearly  seen  (Figure  122). 

3.  The   position  of  the  pore  on  the  ridge.      This    is  practically  the 
most  useful  character,  and  is  certainly  the  most  conspicuous.     The  pores 
usually  lie  in  a  single  row  along  the  middle  or  crest  of  the  ridge,  parallel 
to  the  lateral  furrows,  but  now  and  then  a  single  pore,  or  a  series  of  several 
of  them,  open  on  the  side,  occasionally  almost  into  the  filrrow  between 
the  ridge  and  the  next.     Such  a  laterally  placed  pore  is  likely  to  appear  in 
a  print  as  an  open  notch,  since  the  substance  used  in  printing  covers  only 
the  middle  of  the  ridge,  and  does  not  include  the  outer  margin  of  the  lip 
of  the  pore.     On  this  very  account  one  must  not  expect  to  find  two  separate 
prints  of  the  same  pore  to  be  exactly  alike  in  this  respect,  as  the  pore  may 

*A  micron  (plu.  micro)  is     100Q   of  a  millimeter,  and  thus,  as  25  millimeters  are 

approximately  equal  to  an  inch,  a  micron  is  equal  to     25000      of  an  inch.     Eighty-eight 

8S  1  ^O 

micra  are,  then,      2500o  •,  or  about    30Q     of  an  inch,  and  220  micra  equal       2".~w      or 

H4    °f  an  inch.     Roughly  speaking,  then,  the  sweat  pores  range  in  diameter  from     3QQ 
to     nu.     of  an  inch. 


Poroscopy  299 

be  open  in  one  and  closed  in  the  other,  in  accordance  with  the  breadth  of 
the  printed  surface  in  the  two. 

Again,  the  position  of  the  pores  may  differ  with  respect  to  the  adja- 
cent ones  in  the  same  row,  a  few  being  near  together,  followed  along  the 
same  ridge  by  others  further  apart.  Occasionally,  too,  at  certain  points, 
two  pores  may  occur,  running  abreast  or  nearly  so,  across  a  ridge,  or  again 
three  may  crowd  so  closely  together  as  to  form  a  triangle.  Such  striking 
points,  the  form  of  which  is  easily  held  in  the  eye,  form  valuable  characters 
in  locating  an  area  upon  a  complete  print,  and  thus  determining  the  iden- 
tity of  a  fragment  under  consideration. 

4.  The  number  or  frequency  of  the  pores.  This  feature  is  character- 
istic of  an  entire  print,  or  indeed  of  all  the  prints  of  a  given  individual,  and 
may  be  calculated  in  two  ways:  (1)  the  average  number  of  pores  that 
occur  on  a  given  length  of  ridge,  or  (2)  the  average  number  found  within 
a  given  area.  For  instance,  Locard  finds  that  the  number  of  pores  along 
a  centimeter  of  ridge  varies  from  9  to  18,  and  as  two  and  a  half  centimeters 
are  almost  the  equivalent  of  an  inch,  this  would  mean  23  to  45  per  inch. 
In  the  entire  area  shown  in  Figure  119,  which  is  enlarged  7.5  diameters, 
there  are  more  than  900,  but  in  this  individual  the  pores  were  larger  than 
usual  and  very  numerous. 

We  have,  then,  in  the  sweat  pores,  with  their  great  individual  differ- 
ences, and  their  persistence  throughout  life,  an  invaluable  series  of  indivi- 
dual features,  which  can  be  employed  to  advantage  in  cases  where  the 
record  is  too  incomplete  to  show  a  definite  pattern,  or  too  fragmentary  to 
make  out  even  the  ridge  details  with  certainty.  As  compared  with  one 
case  where  definite  finger  patterns  are  left  upon  the  premises  there  are 
dozens  where  only  the  marks  of  a  few  ridges  can  be  obtained,  and  these 
often  of  other  parts  of  the  hand  than  the  finger  bulbs.  Such  fragments 
may  be  often  identified  by  poroscopy,  if  we  have  for  comparison  the  prints 
of  the  corresponding  parts  of  the  hands  of  suspected  persons.  Nor  is 
this  search  as  great  an  undertaking  or  as  arduous  as  one  would  think.  In 
the  first  place  «,  careful  study  of  the  objects  handled  will  suggest  the  parts 
of  the  hand  which  would  come  most  naturally  into  contact  with  those 
places  where  the  impressions  are  left,  perhaps  the  bulb  or  middle  phalange 
of  the  index  finger,  or  the  outer,  or  ulnar,  cushion  of  the  palm.  Such  a 
preliminary  diagnosis  greatly  assists  the  search,  as  it  directs  the  attention 
to  certain  limited  areas  which  are  to  be  studied  first.  The  investigator 
should  naturally  be  in  possession  of  prints,  or,  still  better,  developed  im- 
pressions, of  these  parts  taken  from  the  hands  of  the  suspected  party  or 
parties,  and  enlarge  both  these  and  the  traces  found  to  about  the  magni- 
fication shown  in  Figure  122;  that  is,  40  diameters,  for  easy  comparison. 
In  starting  it  is  well  to  select  a  characteristic  group  of  pores,  not  too 
many  to  remember  readily,  and  then,  with  the  picture  of  these  in 


300  Personal  Identification 


mind,  to  search  over  the  likely  places  of  the  more  complete  print  for  a 
duplicate  group.  When  noted,  compare  the  surrounding  pores,  and  event- 
ually test  the  entire  fragment  under  inspection.  Mathematically  the 
positive  establishment  of  some  20  to  40  pores  should  establish  a  complete 
identity  for  the  two  duplicate  areas,  yet,  where  a  much  larger  number  of 
details  is  obtainable,  one  should  use  his  full  opportunities,  and  make  the 
comparison  cover  some  hundreds  of  pores,  or,  if  so  many  are  not  available, 
all  there  are. 

Such  a  proof,  which,  in  the  case  of  an  ordinary  chance  impression 
may  be  based  upon  hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  different  points  of 
identity,  incalculably  strengthens  any  proof  brought  forward  by  the  use 
of  the  ridge  details,  and  when  shown  up  by  the  use  of  enlarged  photo- 
graphs, presents  an  overwhelming  piece  of  evidence  to  any  judge  or  jury. 
It  was  precisely  this  corroborative  use  of  poroscopy  which  Locard  ma'de 
at  Lyons  in  1912,  in  the  now  classic  case  of  Boudet  and  Simonin,  which 
Locard  himself  has  described  about  as  follows: 

On  June  10,  1912,  the  apartment  of  M.  Chardonnet,  at  No.  6  Rue 
Centrale,  was  broken  into,  and  several  pieces  of  jewelry,  together  with 
400  francs  in  money,  were  stolen.  There  was  Ho  witness,  and  no  clue  to 
the  thieves;  but  a  rosewood  box,  in  which  the  jewelry  had  been  kept,  was 
literally  covered  with  blurred  finger  marks.  These  were  developed  with 
carbonate  of  lead  and  photographed.  On  comparing  these  with  the 
collections  at  headquarters,  an  assistant  named  Chambon  discovered 
that  certain  of  the  impressions  belonged  to  a  man  by  the  name  of  Boudet, 
who  had  been  sentenced  several  times  before  for  theft.  On  looking  up 
the  records  it  was  found  that  Boudet  habitually  operated  with  a  pal  named 
Simonin.  The  two  were  put  under  arrest,  and  impressions  of  their  hands, 
other  than  the  finger  prints,  were  taken.  There  were  obtained  from  the 
prints  which  covered  the  box  a  fair  impression  of  the  middle  phalange  of 
the  left  middle  finger  of  Boudet,  and  one  of  a  small  area  of  the  left  palm 
of  Simonin.  From  the  ridges  alone,  in  the  usual  way,  there  were  established 
78  points  of  identity  for  the  first  and  94  for  the  second,  yet,  as  the  accused 
would  not  confess,  the  case  was  brought  before  the  assizes.  Here  the 
jury  was  shown  enlarged  photographs  of  the  regions  in  question,  taken 
both  from  the  impressions  on  the  box  and  from  the  men  themselves,  de- 
veloped in  the  same  way.  In  addition  to  the  ridge  details  emphasis  was 
laid  upon  the  correspondence  of  the  sweat  pores,  of  which,  in  the  area 
from  Boudet's  finger,  there  were  901  separate  pores.  All  of  these,  allowing 
for  difference  in  the  amount  of  pressure,  were  shown  to  correspond  exactly ; 
while  upon  the  area  from  the  palm  of  Simonin  there  were  more  than  2,000 
such  correspondences. 

As  a  result  of  this  demonstration,  which  presented  such  an  enormous 
number  of  correspondences,  the  jury  was  convinced,  and  Boudet  and 


Poroscopy 


301 


Simonin  were  each  sentenced  to  five  years  of  hard  labor.     It  is  to  be  em- 
phasized, first,  that  there  was  absolutely  nothing  else  than  the  marks  on 


FIGURE  119.  Impression  of  the  friction  skin  from  the  middle  phalange 
of  the  left  middle  finger  of  Boudet;  magnified  7.5  diameters  This  is  a  photo- 
graph from  an  impression,  developed  with  carbonate  of  lead.  (Original 
presented  the  authors  by  M.  Locard.) 

the  rosewood  box  that  could  be  brought  up  against  the  men,  and,  secondly, 
that  the  box  had  been  so  much  handled  by  both  thieves  that  there  were 
no  distinct  patterns,  and  but  few  places  which  were  not  surcharged  by 


302 


Personal  Identification 


overlapping  impressions.  Locard  himself  remarks  that  without  the 
slightest  doubt  the  sweat  pores  played  the  principal  role  in  convincing 
the  jurors,  whoVould  not  deny  this  overwhelming  mass  of  evidence.* 


FIGURE  120.  Impression  found  on  a  rosewood  jewel  box,  developed 
with  carbonate  of  lead,  and  photographed;  X  7.5.  This  is  surcharged  with 
another  impression  over  the  left  half,  but  the  right  half  is  fairly  clear.  (Origi- 
nal presented  the  authors  by  M.  Locard.) 

*See  article  by  E.  Locard;  "  Les  Pores  et  1' identification  des  criminels,"  in  Biologica, 
2  an.  No.  24,  December  13,  1912.     Publ.  at  Paris,  Boul'd  St.  Michel  121. 


Poroscopy  303 

As  a  practical  illustration  of  sweat-pore  identification  we  present 
here  a  series  of  photographs  sent  us  by  M.  Locard,  and  taken  from  the 
material  used  in  the  above  case. 

The  first  of  these  (Figure  119)  shows  the  impression  of  the  middle 
phalange  of  Boudet's  left  middle  finger,  developed  by  carbonate  of  lead 
from  an  impression  taken  directly  from  the  man  himself,  and  magnified 
(originally)  15  diameters.  The  copy  given  here  is  reduced  one  half  from 
the  original.  In  this,  as  was  characteristic  of  Boudet  in  general,  the  pores 
are  unusually  large  and  numerous,  more  than  900  in  this  figure.  The 
next  figure  (Figure  120)  is  to  be  compared  with  Figure  119,  and  represents 
a  chance  impression  taken  from  the  surface  of  the  rosewood  jewel  box. 
The  left  half  of  this  chance  impression  is  surcharged  with  a  second  im- 
pression, which  obliterates  the  details  of  both,  but  the  right  half  is  suffi- 
ciently clear  to  allow  numerous  comparisons  with  the  corresponding  surface 
in  the  impression  obtained  directly  from  Boudet. 

The  main  difficulty  in  making  the  comparison  is  in  finding  a  starting 
point,  and  for  this  we  may  take  the  obliquely  placed  ridge  just  to  the 
right  of  the  letter  X,  in  both  figures  some  sixteen  ridges  down  from  the 
top,  counting  along  the  middle  of  the  figure.  In  Figure  119,  immediately 
to  the  right  of  the  letter  X,  the  ridge  begins  with  a  large  triangular  ridge 
element,  or  supporting  unit,  with  a  single  sweat  pore  in  its  center.  Be- 
tween this  isolated  unit  and  the  continuation  of  the  ridge  to  the  right  is  a 
narrow  break,  which  is  probably  not  a  real  separation,  but  a  deeply  lying 
sweat  pore  with  a  cross  furrow  that  pushes  the  surface  down  so  that  it 
does  not  print.  This  is  a  common  appearance,  and  naturally  varies  in 
different  prints,  since  its  printing  or  not  depends  upon  the  amount  of 
pressure  exerted.  Beyond  this  again,  still  continuing  towards  the  right, 
we  find  the  following  succession  of  pores : 

1.         A  pore  opening  upwards. 

2-3.     Two  round  pores  with  entire  margins. 

4.  A  pore  on  the  upper  margin,  and  represented  by  a  wide- 
open  notch. 

5-6.  Two  large,  round  pores,  the  first  opening  below  by  a 
narrow  crack. 

If  the  examination  of  this  ridge  be  continued,  it  is  seen  that  Pore  No.  6 
is  followed  by  a  large  oval  7th,  an  elongated  8th,  and  so  on. 

It  may  take  some  little  trouble  at  first  to  recognize  this  same  ridge 
in  the  impression  taken  from  the  box  (Figure  120),  for  the  surcharge  that 
covers  the  left  half  of  the  figure  conceals  the  pointed  nose  of  the  triangular 
piece  with  which  we  began  in  the  first  case.  Counting  down  as  before, 
however,  it  will  be  found  as  the  sixteenth  ridge  down  from  the  top,  just 
to  the  right  of  the  letter  X,  as  in  the  previous  figure.  As  the  pressure 


304 


Personal  Identification 


was  not  so  great  as  in  the  control  print,  taken  for  the  purpose  from  Boudet 
(Figure  119)  the  ridges  are  less  flattened,  and  more  limited  portions  of  the 
ridges  come  in  contact  with  the  paper.  It  is  a  result  of  this  that  in  some 
cases  which  in  the  other  figures  show  entire  pores,  they  are  here  represented 
as  either  notches  or  complete  breaks.  The  lip  of  a  pore  is  irregular  in 
its  height,  and  if  the  pressure  is  but  slight  the  contact  surface  touches 
only  the  higher  parts,  which  are  those  along  the  middle  of  the  ridge,  while 
the  sides,  which  are  lower,  do  not  print.  Here  the  most  conspicuous  pores 
are  the  two  large  round  ones  that  have  run  together,  and  also  open  along 


FIGURES  121,  122.  Portion  of  a  ridge  with  six  sweat 
pores,  shown  in  the  chance  impression  from  the  rosewood 
box  (Figure  120),  and  in  the  impression  taken  directly  from 
the  left  middle  finger  of  Boudet  (Figure  119).  Enlarged 
to  42  diameters.  (After  Locard.) 

the  upper  side  of  the  ridge.  These  are  Pores  Nos.  2  and  3  of  the  previous 
count,  which,  in  the  print  with  greater  pressure,  appear  as  "two  round 
complete  ones."  Just  to  the  right  of  these  is  the  one  that  opens  up,  fol- 
lowed by  two  large  round  pores,  after  which  these  two  small  prints  come 
to  an  end. 

The  comparison  of  these  six  sweat  pores  may  be  followed  still  farther 
by  the  help  of  Figures  121  and  122,  which  show  the  ridge  in  question 
isolated  and  enlarged  to  42  diameters.  The  upper  one,  Figure  121,  is 
taken  from  the  impression  on  the  rosewood  box;  the  other  from  the  care- 
fully made  impression  from  Boudet,  with  which  it  is  to  be  identified  (Fig- 


Poroscopy  305 

ure  122).  This  latter  corresponds  to  the  list  above  given,  in  which  the 
same  six  pores  are  described,  and  it  is  easy  here  to  see,  reading  from  left 
to  right,  the  "sweat  pore  opening  upward,"  the  "two  round  complete 
ones,"  the  "pore  on  the  upper  margin,  represented  by  a  wide  open  notch," 
and  the  "two  large,  round  pores,  the  first  opening  below  by  a  narrow 
crack." 

Turn  now  to  the  upper  figure  and  by  a  little  study  the  complete 
identity  of  the  two  will  become  apparent.  The  mouth  of  a  sweat  pore 
quite  frequently  has  a  cross  furrow,  making  the  lip  nearest  the  two  sides 
a  trifle  lower  than  the  rest  of  the  circumference,  and  this  is  why  the  print 
with  the  less  pressure,  Figure  121,  shows  this  on  both  sides,  continuous 
with  the  pore,  and  appearing  as  a  slight  break.  In  the  corresponding  pore 
of  the  lower  figure,  Figure  122,  a  little  more  pressure  has  closed  up  the 
lower  furrow  and  left  the  upper  one  considerably  narrowed.  A  slight 
increase  of  pressure  would  easily  bridge  this  slight  gap  and  present  the 
mouth  as  a  complete  one. 

The  second  and  third  pores,  closely  associated  on  their  surface,  are 
pressed  sufficiently  in  the  lower  figure  to  show  complete  lips,  but  the 
upper  figure  shows  more  of  the  surface  sculpture, .,  and  indicates  a  rather 
deep  groove  running  between  the  two,  w^hile  the  isolated  dot  suggests  the 
side  wall  that  is  completed  by  a  little  more  pressure  in  the  other  print. 
Pore  No.  4  differs  but  little  in  the  two  impressions,  but  the  increased 
pressure  of  the  lower  print  has  obliterated  the  little  notch  in  the  side  of 
the  big  one.  Otherwise  the  two  outlines  are  identical.  The  fifth,  opening 
on  the  lower  side,  is  modified  a  bit  by  the  extra  pressure,  yet  retains  its 
characteristics  remarkably  well  in  both  prints.  It  is  easily  identified. 
The  same  may  be  said  for  the  sixth,  even  with  its  irregular  contour.  The 
modification  is  slight.  In  the  same  way  the  surrounding  pores  of  this  and 
the  adjacent  ridges  were  found  to  correspond,  part  for  part,  so  that,  in  all, 
as  stated  above,  there  were  901  corresponding  pores,  matched  in  position, 
shape,  size,  and  often  in  minute  details,  like  Pore  No.  6  of  the  illustration. 

Some  experts,  in  the  development  of  a  chance  impression,  prefer  to 
use  a  black  powder,  to  make  a  better  comparison  with  a  black  print,  and 
to  make  the  matter  easier  for  them,  we  give  in  the  next  figure,  Figure  123, 
a  detail  of  these  same  sweat  pores  with  those  near  them,  shown  in  black. 
If  it  is  found  expedient  at  any  time  to  thus  reverse  the  colors  in  a  photo- 
graphic enlargement,  one  may  simply  use  single-weight  photograph  paper  as 
a  negative,  and  print  through  that.  Use  for  the  paper  a  kind  that  gives  a 
strong  contrast,  print  by  daylight,  and  use  a  slow  developer.  Where  time 
is  to  be  saved  it  is  possible  to  use  artificial  heat  in  drying,  so  that  one  can 
make  a  print  from  a  previously  prepared  negative,  develop  and  dry  it, 
make  a  reverse  print  from  this,  and  have  this  last  ready  for  examination  in 
a  very  few  minutes. 


306 


Personal  Identification 


These  photographs  with  reversed  colors  show  the  sweat  pores  with 
remarkable  clearness  and  are  in  many  ways  easier  to  interpret  than  the 
other  kind.  Thus,  in  Figure  124,  which  shows  the  first  few  pores  of  the 
two  ridges  of  a  fork,  the  variation  of  shape  and  arrangement  is  remarkably 
clear.  At  the  upper  left-hand  corner  is  a  pore  that  lies  in  a  minute  trans- 
verse crease,  like  some  we  have  previously  considered,  and  shows  the 
sweat  pore  itself,  with  an  opening  on  each  side.  The  next  one  to  the 
right  on  the  same  ridge  is  similar  to  it,  but  here  the  original  surface  was 
more  irregular,  and  the  identification  of  pore  and  creases  is  not  so  clear. 


FIOUI  E  123.  Portion  of  friction  skin,  including  the  ridge  shown  in  the  two  previous 
figures,  with  surrounding  ridges.  This  was  taken  from  the  left  middle  finger  of  Boudet 
after  his  arrest,  but  the  colors  have  been  reversed  by  a  second  printing,  in  the  manner 
described  in  the  text. 

This  fragment  would  originally  measure,  before  enlargement,  approximately  l-16th 
by  l-13th  of  an  inch.  The  pores  average  probably  100  to  an  inch  of  ridge  in  length, 
or  nearly  so,  double  the  number  usually  found  in  a  normal  subject. 

Then  follow  three  entire  pores  and  a  notch,  which  represents  a  pore  placed 
on  the  side.  As  this  laterally-placed  pore  faces  another  on  the  ridge 
above,  and  as  the  two  thus  open  towards  each  other  at  the  point  where 
the  forking  occurs,  it  is  likely  that  the  glands,  of  which  they  form  the  out- 
lets, were  more  or  less  fused  below  the  surface,  forming  a  compound  or 
twin  structure.  Another  twin  pore,  but  placed  with  the  components 
arranged  lengthwise  of  the  ridge,  appears  in  the  upper  ridge. 

In  this  connection  it  is  important  to  call  attention  to  the  difference 


Poroscopy  307 

between  an  enlargement  and  a  magnification,  as  the  two  words  are  very 
different  in  meaning,  although  often  used  interchangeably. 

When  an  object  is  magnified,  more  details  appear  than  were  seen 
before,  and  new  details  continue  to  appear  as  the  amount  of  magnification 
increases,  but  in  an  enlargement  the  details  already  there  are  made  bigger, 
area  for  area;  you  get  no  new  information,  but  what  has  been  already 
presented  is  larger.  The  face  of  the  manager  on  a  circus  poster  may  be 
six  feet  across,  but  in  it  there  are  no  more  details  to  be  seen  of  the  texture 
of  a  face  than  one  sees  at  the  natural  size.  It  is  merely  enlarged,  for  the 


FIGURE  124.  A  fork,  enlarged  32  diame- 
ters, illustrating  the  differences  in  size,  shape, 
position, and  number  of  pores,  on  two  adjacent 
ridges.  Notice  a  double  pore  where  the  ridge 
bifurcates  at  about  the  middle  of  the  right 
side. 


purpose  of  being  seen  at  a  distance.  If  a  face  were  really  to  be  magnified 
to  that  size,  think  of  the  details  of  the  skin  which  would  appear  upon  it! 

Now  if  an  ordinary  print  were  to  be  magnified  to,  perhaps,  30  diame- 
ters, the  fibers  of  the  paper  would  show  so  distinctly  that  the  background 
would  look  like  a  rough  blanket;  also  the  ink  surface,  with  the  particles 
of  which  it  is  composed,  would  resemble  sandpaper.  Another  decidedly 
undesirable  feature  that  would  appear  would  be  that  the  margins  every- 
where, where  black  and  white  areas  come  together,  would  become  irregu- 
lar and  uncertain,  and  this  character  would  increase  with  each  power  of 
magnification,  until  the  prints  would  be  impossible  to  use. 

Naturally  a  lens  or  reading  glass  magnifies,  and  this  is  of  value,  and 
a  decided  advantage  to  a  certain  extent,  perhaps  up  to  15  diameters; 


308  Personal  Identification 


much  beyond  this,  however,  a  magnification  would  be  disadvantageous, 
and  we  resort  to  enlargements. 

Thus  Figure  124,  enlarged  (not  magnified)  to  32  diameters,  has  all 
of  its  boundaries  precise  and  definite;  the  black  areas  are  smooth  and 
featureless,  and  the  white  show  no  details.  It  is  exactly  right  for  the 
purpose  for  which  it  is  to  be  used,  to  be  shown  to  a  jury.  But  no  degree 
of  enlargement  can  get  anything  more  out  of  it.  A  greater  enlargement 
can  be  seen  farther,  perhaps  across  a  large  court  room,  but  the  black  areas 
will  remain  just  as  featureless,  and  the  boundaries  will  be  just  as  clear-cut 
and  precise.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  this  print  had  been  magnified  to  this 
extent,  the  graining  of  the  paper,  the  particles  of  the  ink,  and  all  the  rough- 
nesses of  the  actual  surface  would  tend  to  render  the  boundaries  less  pre- 
cise and  the  print  less  clear  for  the  purposes  for  which  we  use  it.  Thus 
nothing  is  gained  in  magnifying  beyond  a  certain  point;  a  small  magnifi- 
cation, perhaps  4  to  7  diameters,  is  quite  enough;  above  this  one  needs 
only  enlargements  up  to  the  size  required  to  be  distinctly  seen.  A  magni- 
fication of  4  diameters  is  large  enough  for  the  general  ridge  details,  when 
in  the  hands  of  an  expert;  a  magnification  of  7  diameters  brings  out  each 
detail  wonderfully  and  allows  them  all  to  be  readily  located  and  counted. 
This  magnification  is  about  right  for  the  count  of  the  ridge  details  by  the 
method  of  100  squares  (see  Chapter  IX).  It  is  also  large  enough  for  ordinary 
work  before  a  jury.  Fifteen  diameters,  also  a  magnification,  is  large 
enough  for  poroscopfc  work,  but,  in  order  to  exhibit  this  to  the  court, 
some  degree  of  enlargement  beyond  this  is  necessary.  Enlargements  of 
60  to  80  diameters  are  large  enough  for  any  court  room,  unless  it  is  re- 
quired to  show  them  at  a  considerable  distance,  when  there  are  possibili- 
ties of  enlargement  to  any  required  size.* 

The  facts  here  presented  show  that  Poroscopy,  or  the  study  of  the 
sweat  pores,  is  an  important  branch  of  finger  print  identification,  and 
finds  its  especial  application  in  the  identification  of  chance  impressions. 
"  It  often  happens  that  the  prints  left  by  the  criminal  are  extremely  frag- 
mentary, and  the  most  careful  search  reveals  only  a  small  area  of  useful 
traces.  This  may  be  either  because  the  criminal  has  protected  his  hands 

*The  modern  form  of  projecting  and  reflecting  lanterns,  especially  when  equipped 
with  the  incandescent,  instead  of  the  arc,  light,  is  decidedly  the  most  practical  method 
of  presenting  all  facts  connected  with  ridges  or  pores.  A  small  lantern,  sufficiently 
large  for  the  court-room,  is  not  very  expensive;  it  is  easily  transported,  and  enlarges 
to  any  required  dimension  small  photographs  of  finger  prints  or  impressions  of  other 
ridged  surfaces.  Prints  made  directly  from  fingers  or  the  entire  palm  upon  a  thin 
sheet  of  gelatine,  or  plate  of  glass,  can  be  thrown  directly  upon  a  screen  with  the  same 
ease  as  with  an  ordinary  lantern  slide,  and  two  of  the  same  size  might  even  be  compared 
by  superposition.  We  are  not  aware  that  this  technique  has  ever  been  developed  very 
far,  as  applied  to  the  subject  in  hand,  but  we  are  confident  that  it  will  be  found  the  best 
and  most  expeditious  way  of  presenting  the  facts  of  friction-skin  identification. 


Poroscopy  309 

by  wearing  gloves,  *  or,  more  likely,  because  the  traces  have  been  obliter- 
ated by  intruders,  police  or  otherwise.  In  such  cases  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  renounce  the  finger-print  proof,  because  it  is  true  that  there 
is  a  certain  limit,  beyond  which  proof  from  finger  prints  is  merely  presump- 
tion; but  in  all  cases  the  digital  patterns  reveal  a  series  of  sweat  orifices, 
more  than  a  thousand  to  a  phalange,  which  are  unchangeable  in  form,  in 
position,  in  si/e,  and  in  number,  and  constitute  so  many  definite  characters 
which  afford  a  powerful  aid  to  the  dactyloscopic  proof,  and  can  be  relied 
upon  independently  in  cases  of  extremely  fragmentary  impressions. "f 

Even  when  the  public,  or  the  police  officials,  have  had  full  access  to 
the  scene  of  a  crime,  and  have  actually  handled  the  objects  concerned  in 
it,  and  placed  their  fingers  over  the  very  impressions  left  by  the  perpe- 
trators, the  case  is  not  absolutely  hopeless,  for,  as  in  the  double  impres- 
sions involved  in  the  Boudet-Simonin  case,  a  few  ridges  may  escape  being 
surcharged;  yet  it  is  readily  seen  that  such  blunders  increase  tenfold  the 
labors  of  the  finger  print  expert. 

At  Lyons,  and  in  many  other  cities  of  France  and  Germany,  the 
finger-print  expert  is  always  the  first  one  admitted  to  the  scene  of  a  crime, 
and  all  persons,  including  the  police  and  those  nearest  interested,  are  ex- 
cluded until  he  has  finished  his  examination.  Locard  declares  that  the 
finger-print  system  is  useful  here  in  exact  proportion  to  the  discipline  of 
the  police  in  -this  matter,  for  where  a  room  is  invaded  by  friends,  neigh- 
bors, policemen,  and  others,  all  traces  are  soon  obliterated. 

It  is  to  be  understood,  finally,  that,  even  though  an  imprint  is  without 
a  pattern  and  of  very  small  area,  if  brought  out  clearly  the  evidence  from 
the  pores  alone  makes  it  possible  to  establish  certain  identity.  The  main 
trjuble,  aside  from  direct  interference,  has  long  been,  and  will  be  for  some 
time,  that  by  the  usual  methods  of  development  the  ridges  in  an  accidental 
imprint  are  so  loaded  up  with  powder  that  many  times  the  pores  cannot 
be  seen,  or,  if  too  much  is  removed,  the  characteristic  details  are  also  lost; 
but  the  authors  look  ahead  to  the  time,  not  far  distant,  when  all  accidental 
impressions  will  be  developed  by  suitable  chemical  fumes,  or  by  other 
equally  delicate  methods,  thus  reproducing  the  impressions  exactly  as  they 
are,  without  the  intervention  of  any  kind  of  powders,  so  much  in  use  to-day. 

Identification  by  the  sweat  pores  has  been  used  but  little  up  to  the 

*  With  regard  to  the  fear  sometimes  expressed  that  criminals  may  cover  their  traces 
by  wearing  gloves,  Locard  calls  attention  to  the  delicate  use  of  the  fingers,  and  the  im- 
portance of  an  acute  touch,  in  the  work  of  a  burglar,  work  necessarily  carried  on  in  the 
dark,  or  in  subdued  light;  that  this  class  of  men  are  not  accustomed  to  wear  gloves  in 
their  usual  activities  would  make  such  a  feat  still  more  difficult.  In  Lyons,  out  of  1,498 
cases  investigated  by  the  police,  only  fifteen  or  so  were  cases  in  which  gloves  were  worn. 
Stockis  of  Liege  has  shown  that  even  gloves  are  not  an  absolute  preventive  of  the  tell- 
tale impressions,  unless  all  areas  of  the  friction-skin  are  completely  protected  during  the 
work.  tM.  Edmond  Locard 


310 


Personal  Identification 


present  time,  perhaps  mainly  by  Dr.  Locard  in  France  and  by  the  present 
authors  in  the  United  States,  but  the  suggestion  that  this  field  is  still 
largely  unexplored  may  induce  others  to  experiment  and  investigate  along 
these  same  lines.  Locard  says,  "If  the  jury  or  magistrate  hesitate  be- 
cause it  may  seem  to  them  audacious  to  believe  that  12-15  points  are 


FIGURE  125. 
France. 


M.  Edmond   Locard,  Director  of   the  Laboratory  of  Police,  Lyons, 


sufficient  to  identify  an  impression,  they  will  do  so  no  longer  when  they 
are  shown  the  perfect  accord  of  hundreds  of  pores."  As  an  illustration 
we  may  cite  the  Maten  case,  also  from  Lyons,  where  a  fragmentary  im- 
print without  details  contained  200  pores,  and  was  thereby  identified  as 
coming  from  the  right  ring  finger  of  the  accused  burglar,  Maten. 

In  a  very  able  article  on  the  subject  of  Poroscopy,  published  in  1914, 
the  author,  M.  Locard,  closes  as  follows: 


Poroscopy  311 

CONCLUSION 

"  1 .  The  sweat  pores  present  the  triple  characteristic  of  perpetuity, 
immutability,  and  variety,  which  establishes  them  as  a  means  of  identi- 
fication of  primary  importance. 

"2.  Identification  by  the  comparison  of  pores  in  a  striking  manner 
confirms  the  evidence  from  finger  prints,  by  adding  to  the  determination 
of  ridge  details  that  of  the  visible  sweat  pores,  the  number  of  which  is 
often  many  hundreds,  and  in  a  good  impression  may  exceed  a  thousand. 

"3.  In  most  cases  in  which  the  digital  or  palmar  impression  is  too 
fragmentary  for  an  absolute  identification  by  the  dactyloscopic  method, 
which  requires  a  minimum  of  twelve  characteristic  points,  the  comparison  of 
pores,  providing  these  are  discernable,  will  permit  the  attainment  of  posi- 
tive identification." 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   IMPOSSIBILITY   OF   FINDING   TWO   IDENTICAL   FINGER   PRINTS 

"Had  M.  Beauvais,  in  his  search  for  the  body  of  Marie,  discovered  a 
corpse  corresponding  in  general  size  and  appearance  to  the  missing  girl,  he 
would  have  been  warranted  .  .  .  in  forming  an  opinion  that  his  search 
had  been  successful.  If,  in  addition  to  the  point  of  general  size  and  contour, 
he  had  found  upon  the  arm  a  peculiar  hairy  appearance  which  he  had  ob- 
served upon  the  living  Marie  his  opinion  might  have  been  justly  strengthened. 
.  .  .  //,  the  feet  of  Marie  being  small,  those  of  the  corpse  were  also  small, 
the  increase  of  probability  that  the  body  was  that  of  Marie  would  not  be  an 
increase  in  a  ratio  merely  arithmetical,  but  in  one  highly  geometrical,  or  accumu- 
lative. Add  to  all  this,  shoes  she  had  been  known  to  wear  upon  the  day  of  her 
disappearance,  and  .  .  .  you  so  far  augment  the  probability  as  to  verge 
upon  the  certain.  What  of  itself  would  be  no  evidence  of  identity,  becomes 
through  its  corroborative  position  proof  most  sure.  Give  us,  then,  flowers  in 
the  hat  corresponding  to  those  worn  by  the  missing  girl,  and  we  seek  for  nothing 
farther.  If  only  ONE  flower,  we  seek  for  nothing  farther  —  what  then  if 
two  or  three,  or  more?  Each  successive  one  is  multiple  evidence  —  proof  not 
ADDED  to  proof,  but  MULTIPLIED  by  hundreds  or  thousands.  . 
But  it  is  not  that  the  corpse  was  found  to  have  the  garters  of  the  missing  girl, 
or  found  to  have  her  shoes,  or  her  bonnet,  or  the  flowers  of  her  bonnet,  or  her 
feet,  or  a  peculiar  mark  upon  the  arm,  or  her  general  size  and  appearance  —  it 
is  that  the  corpse  had  each  and  ALL  COLLECTIVELY."  —  Edgar  Allen 
Poe:  "The  Mystery  of  Marie  Roget." 

SUPPOSE  now  that  we  are  willing  to  accept  the  fact  that  a  finger 
print,  in  all  its  details,  remains   without   change   throughout    life; 
suppose  also  that  we  understand  the  different  types  of  patterns  and 
the  method  of  classifying  them,  so  that  a  given  set  of  prints,  or  even  a 
single  print,  may  be  readily  found  in  a  collection  of  hundreds  or  even 
thousands;    suppose  that  we  understand  and  accept  all  this,  there  still 
remains  the  question  whether  any  two  persons  can  have  the  same  finger  prints, 
or,  expressed  in  different  words,  whether  any  two  finger  prints  can  be  identical. 
The  simplest  and  most  sensible  way  to  attack  this  problem  is  to  ex- 
amine critically  a  few  actual  finger  prints,  and  see  what  they  consist  of, 
how  much  detail  they  have,  how  variable  individually  these  are,  and  thus 
how  much  would  be  involved  in  duplicating  one.     Without  such  an  examina- 
tion one  is  inclined  to  continue  in  his  first  impression,  that  finger  prints 

312 


ra>>  • 

No  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints  313 

consist  of  a  few  type  patterns,  that  these  occur  in  every  possible  combina- 
tion upon  the  ten  fingers  of  an  individual,  but  that  a  duplication  of  several 
of  these,  or  of  the  whole  set,  is  not  infrequent. 

In  reality  a  finger  print  is  made  up  of  a  large  number  of  independently 
variable  details,  but  they  are  just  a  little  too  small  to  be  made  out  clearly 
with  the  unaided  eye.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  in  order  to  give  them  the 
examination  required,  to  magnify  them  a  little,  perhaps  from  4-7  times. 
A  good  reading  glass  will  magnify  some  2-3  times,  or,  more  technically, 
2-3  diameters,  not  quite  enough  for  careful  work,  but  a  pocket  magnifier, 
carrying  two  or  three  separate  lenses  which  can  be  combined,  will  give, 
by  its  various  combinations,  magnifications  ranging  from  the  powers  of  a 
reading  glass  up  to  8  or  10  diameters,  or  more.  For  many  purposes, 
especially  for  demonstration  in  court,  an  enlarged  photograph  is  much 
more  convenient  than  such  a  hand  lens,  and  by  modern  methods  photo- 
graphs of  practically  any  degree  of  magnification  up  to  a  thousand  diam- 
eters can  be  made,  and  conveniently  exhibited  to  a  large  audience  at  once 
by  the  aid  of  the  stereopticon.  The  figures  which  follow  here  to  illustrate 
the  subject  under  consideration  are  in  the  main  photographic  enlargements 
of  4-9  diameters,  a  size  suitable  for  the  case,  while  in  a  previous  chapter, 
which  dealt  with  still  smaller  details,  higher  magnifications  were  used.  It  is 
important  to  note  in  this  connection  that  a  certain  point  is  best  brought 
out  at  a  certain  magnification,  and  that  nothing  more  is  gained  by  increas- 
ing the  enlargement. 

We  select  for  our  first  study  a  pattern  of  the  most  common  type,  the 
Ulnar  Loop,  taken  from  the  right  middle  finger  of  one  "Bangor  Billy," 
who  was  electrocuted  at  Sing  Sing,  June  12,  1911.  This  type  of  pattern 
occurs  in  the  fingers  of  5,000  individuals,  who  were  counted  and  tabulated 
for  the  study  of  the  frequency  of  patterns  31,852  times  out  of  the  50,000 
involved;  with  the  exception  of  both  little  fingers,  it  is  more  common  on 
the  right  middle  finger,  as  here,  than  upon  any  of  the  other  fingers  (3,719 
out  of  the  5,000).  Using  thus  this  commonest  pattern,  occurring  on  one 
of  the  fingers  where  it  is  the  most  frequent,  74  per  cent,  we  are  putting  the 
matter  to  the  severest  possible  test,  and  yet  we  can  confidently  assert 
that  it  is  overwhelmingly  improbable  that  this  pattern,  in  its  details,  exists  on 
any  other  finger  at  the  present  time,  or  has  ever  been  duplicated  in  the  world's 
history. 

But  to  show  the  basis  for  such  an  astounding  assertion,  it  is  necessary 
to  examine  this  print  in  greater  detail,  for  which  this  photograph,  enlarged 
four  diameters,  gives  opportunity  (Figure  126).  At  the  natural  size  this 
print  would  show  no  especial  difference  from  many  other  ulnar  loops, 
and  could  doubtless  be  duplicated,  to  the  satisfaction  of  an  ordinary  jury, 
by  a  dozen  or  more  collected  from  the  jury-box  itself;  yet,  when  seen  at 
a  magnification  of  some  4  diameters,  as  in  this  case,  the  pattern  becomes 


314 


Personal  Identification 


more  intricate  than  the  finest  lathe-work  on  a  bank  note.  It  is  seen  that 
the  ridges  do  not  run  in  uninterrupted  parallel  lines,  but  in  some  places 
a  line  stops,  and  forms  a  free  end,  while  the  two  adjacent  ridges  close  up 
beyond  it.  In  places,  too,  a  ridge  clearly  branches,  and  forms  a  fork,  and 
in  one  place  in  this  print,  but  more  frequently  in  some  other  cases,  a  small 
bit  of  ridge  is  seen  lying,  all  by  itself,  between  two  long  ridges.  This  is 
called  technically  an  island,  and  occurs  many  times  in  the  thumb-print 
shown  farther  on  (Figure  129).  A  fourth  kind  of  ridge  detail,  not  well 
shown  here,  but  possibly  present  in  the  poorly  printed  right  lower  portion, 
is  an  interruption  or  break,  where  a  ridge  comes  to  an  end,  but,  instead  of 
becoming  discontinued,  as  in  the  case  of  a  true  end,  continues  again,  leaving 
a  short  interval,  or  interruption,  along  its  course. 

These  four  sorts  of  details,  (1)  ends,  (2)  forks,  (3)  islands,  and  (4) 


FIGURE  126.  Print  of  the  right  middle  finger 
of  "Bangor  Billy";  an  Ulnar  Loop  with  a  6-ridge 
count.  Enlarged  4  diameters. 

breaks,  are,  in  their  position  and  occurrence,  wholly  individual,  and  are 
never  identical  in  any  two  prints,  no  matter  how  similar  the  general  pat- 
tern. Forks,  by  adding  to  the  total  count  of  the  ridges  in  a  certain  area, 
appear  where  an  element  of  a  pattern  broadens  out,  or  runs  over  a  convex 
surface,  and  ends,  which  denote  the  loss  of  ridges,  are  found  under  the 
opposite  circumstances,  when  a  system  of  ridges  contracts.  Breaks  and 
islands  are  seemingly  accidental  and  without  special  significance,  although 
the  presence  of  long  strings  of  islands  interpolated  between  two  ridges 
rather  far  apart,  as  are  seen  in  Figure  129  below,  may  represent  the  ves- 


No  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints  315 

tiges  of  a  suppressed  ridge,  that  never  came  to  development  because  it 
was  not  needed. 

The  individual  and  wholly  irregular  arrangement  of  these  details 
is  well  shown  by  covering  an  enlarged  photograph  of  a  print  with  tracing 
paper,  and  drawing  upon  this  the  details  desired,  without  the  ridges. 
They  then  appear  like  the  one  shown  in  Figure  127,  which  shows  the  21 
forks  that  occur  in  the  left  middle  finger  of  Bangor  Billy,  drawn  by  them- 
selves. Still  another  method  of  designating  details  is  shown  in  Figure 
128,  where  15  forks  and  20  ends  are  marked  on  the  original  photograph, 
the  former  designated  by  numbers,  the  latter  by  letters.  The  difference 


FIGURE  127.  The  forks  of  the  preceding  figure,  shown  by 
themselves.  There  are  21  of  these,  counting  the  separate  forks, 
of  the  compound  pieces.  The  apparent  breaks  at  a  and  6 
are  due  to  lower  places  in  the  ridges,  such  as  are  likely  to  occur 
where  two  ridges  meet. 


in  count  in  the  forks  shown  in  this  and  the  previous  figure  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  area  included  was  not  quite  the  same  in  the  two.  Also,  in 
Figure  128,  in  the  small  area  enclosed  by  a  line,  where  the  ridges  have 
become  indistinct  through  some  former  injury,  involving  suppuration, 
the  forks  and  ends  are  not  used. 

Thus  the  analysis  of  this  common  type  of  finger  print,  using  only  the 
details  that  are  obvious  to  any  one  in  a  4  times  magnification,  has  resulted 
in  finding,  aside  from  the  pattern  and  the  number  of  ridges  between  delta 
and  core,  some  15  forks,  20  ends,  and  an  island,  the  location  of  each  of  which 


316 


Personal  Identification 


is  an  individual  character,  less  easily  duplicated  than  a  Bertillon  Measure- 
ment. In  experiments  made  by  the  authors,  where  the  forks  alone  of 
similar  ulnar  patterns  were  drawn  by  themselves  on  tracing  paper,  as  in 
Figure  102,  and  then  placed  two  and  two  against  a  window  pane,  if  they 
were  so  held  that  a  single  fork  on  one  coincided  with  one  on  the  other,  it 
rarely  happened  that  there  was  another  coincidence,  even  approximate, 
in  the  entire  print.  Otherwise,  and  in  general,  they  were  all  at  complete 
variance. 

Summarizing  the  results  of  our  examination  of  this  single  pattern, 
we  find  that  even  a  low  magnification  brings  out  a  large  number  of  ridge 


FIGURE  128.  The  same  print  as  Figure  126, 
with  both  forks  and  ends  designated,  the  former 
by  figures,  the  latter  by  capital  letters.  The 
enlargement  is  the  same  as  in  Figure  126, 
but  the  area  shown  is  a  little  less,  which  re- 
duces slightly  the  number  of  details  shown. 

details,  quite  unnoticed  by  one  who  makes  a  casual  inspection  with  the 
unaided  eye.  We  find  that,  far  from  considering  all  ulnar  loops  the  same, 
or  even  similar,  they  differ  individually  by  numerous  highly  variable 
characters,  and  that,  in  order  for  a  second  pattern  to  duplicate  this,  it 
must  have,  in  addition  to  the  ulnar  loop  type,  and  a  ridge  count  of  six, 
some  15  separate  forks,  20  ends,  and  one  island,  included  within  the  middle 
part  of  the  entire  print,  and,  a  condition  most  impossible  to  meet,  each 
and  every  one  of  these  36  details  must  be  placed  on  exactly  the  correspond- 
ing ridge,  and  at  the  same  place  in  the  ridge. 


A7o  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints  317 

Even  though  two  ulnar  loop  patterns,  each  with  a  ridge  count  of 
6,  should  be  found  with  a  coincidence  in  one  of  36  separate  details,  it 
would  be  very  hard  to  find  one  in  which  a  second  point  also  coincided, 
and  if  a  second,  it  would  be  progressively  much  harder  to  find  one  with  a 
third,  a  fourth,  and  so  on. 

The  principle  is  the  same  as  the  one  used  by  Edgar  Allen  Poe  in  the 
identification  of  the  body  of  Marie  Roget,  given  at  the  head  of  the  chapter, 
where  each  added  detail  corresponding  to  the  missing  girl  made  the  case 
stronger  in  geometrical  series;  "proof  not  added  to  proof,  but  multiplied 
by  hundreds  or  thousands."  Thus,  in  finger  prints,  if  a  fork  in  one  cor- 
responds to  an  identical  one  in  another,  it  suggests  at  once  that  the  two 
are  from  the  same  finger;  if  a  second  coincides,  the  proof  is  strengthened 
many  fold;  if  three  are  coincident,  the  proof  "verges  upon  the  certain," 
and  so  on.  The  number  of  these  proofs  following  proofs  requisite  to  con- 
vince a  man  may  differ  somewhat  individually,  but  in  any  case  a  coinci- 
dence of  eight  or  ten  points  ought  to  be  sufficient  to  convince  anyone. 
In  the  Marie  Roget  case  there  was  about  this  number  of  different  char- 
acters, and  these  would  pass  in  any  court  in  the  land  as  absolute  proof; 
why  not  in  a  case  dealing  with  the  same  number  of  forks  and  ends  in  a 
finger  print?  Naturally,  to  a  man  who  knows  little  or  nothing  about  the 
subject,  the  presence,  for  example,  of  a  fork  on  the  third  ridge  from  the 
delta  of  an  ulnar  loop,  running  toward  the  core,  and  seven  sweat  pores 
up  from  the  straight  line  joining  core  and  delta,  would  not  appeal  as  nearly 
so  strong  a  proof  of  identity  as  the  size  of  the  shoes,  yet  the  former  is 
actually  more  difficult  to  duplicate  than  the  latter;  again,  an  end  on  the 
fourth  ridge,  a  little  above  the  other,  is  an  added  proof  comparable  to  a 
flower  on  the  bonnet,  and  the  fact  that  the  two  are  found  together  in  the 
one  case  is  just  as  truly  "multiple  evidence,  proof  most  sure"  as  in  the 
other.  But  Poe  was  content  to  show  coincidence  in  not  more  than 
nine  or  ten  details,  while  even  the  simplest  and  least  complex  finger  print 
presents  some  thirty  to  fifty,  or  more,  each  one  of  which  is  more  individual 
and  harder  to  duplicate  than  any  of  the  larger  characters  found  upon  a  body. 

Practically  every  writer  on  the  subject  has  made  a  set  of  calculations 
of  the  percentage  of  chance  involved  in  duplicating  a  finger  print,  and  as 
the  line  of  mathematical  reasoning  is  simple,  and  brings  out  still  stronger 
the  practical  impossibility  of  duplication,  it  may  prove  of  interest  to  the 
reader  to  take  it  up  anew  in  these  pages. 

As  a  simpler  case,  and  one  that  deals  with  ordinary  things,  with  which 
all  are  familiar,  we  shall  consider  first  the  identification  of  the  corpse  in 
our  initial  quotation.  Marie  Roget's  body  was  positively  identified 
through  coincidence  in  the  following  particulars: 

1.  Size. 

2.  General  appearance. 


318  Personal  Identification 


3.  A  peculiar  hairy  appearance  on  the  arm. 

4.  Small  feet. 

5.  Shoes  like  those  worn  on  day  of  disappearance. 

6.  Garters  like  those  worn  by  Marie. 

7-9.  Three  or  more  flowers  in  the  bonnet,  each  like  one  known  to 
have  been  worn  by  her. 

This  series  of  coincidences  was  considered  sufficient  proof  of  identity, 
and,  laying  aside  all  idea  of  an  intentional  substitution,  of  course,  it  would 
be  considered  by  practically  every  one  as  sufficient.  Stress  must  be  put 
upon  the  factor  of  "multiple  evidence,"  each  new  proof  making  the  total 
proof  many  times  stronger  than  before. 

Let  us  now  put  this  case  to  the  mathematical  test,  and  calculate  the 
chances  against  such  a  body,  with  the  characters  noted,  being  the  one 
sought. 

Beginning  with  the  first  item,  that  of  size,  in  the  entire  absence  of 
the  Bertillon  measurements,  or  any  other  accurate  system,  this  item  of 
small  stature  is  not  of  great  value.  Perhaps  one  girl  in  four  may  have 
suited  the  conditions;  that  is,  the  chance  of  duplicating  the  body  in  this 
one  particular  may  be  said  to  be  one  in  four. 

The  second  quality,  also  intangible,  and  difficult  to  put  down  in  either 
words  or  figures,  rests  upon  the  testimony  of  those  who  knew  her  by  sight, 
but,  as  the  body  was  in  poor  condition,  it  would  be  well  within  the  truth 
to  set  down  this  chance  as  one  in  six,  meaning  that  in  every  six  such  bodies, 
five  would  be  instantly  rejected,  while  the  sixth  would  be  a  possible 
candidate. 

Taking,  now,  these  two  characters,  and  considering  it  the  task  of  the 
court  to  select  the  right  one  out  of  a  large  number  of  bodies  in  similar 
condition.  Selected  by  the  first  character  alone,  one  body  in  four  would 
be  selected,  but  the  second  character,  which  would  select  one  body  in 
six,  would  not  begin  over  again  and  make  the  selection  from  the  original 
lot,  but  from  the  one  fourth  already  selected  from  the  original  lot;  that 
is,  one  sixth  of  one  fourth,  or  one  twenty-fourth.  In  other  words,  one 
body  in  every  twenty-four  would  correspond  to  the  missing  Marie  in  the 
two  first  characters. 

The  third  character  is  a  very  definite  one,  and,  if  carefully  described, 
might  not  occur  in  one  body  out  of  several  hundred.  Here,  however,  as 
no  accurate  description  of  this  character  exists,  there  is  a  much  greater 
chance  of  the  occurrence  of  some  such  appearance,  calculated  to  satisfy 
a  man  who  had  seen  the  mark,  but  had  not  observed  it  accurately.  We 
will  call  the  chance  one  in  ten.  But  this  means,  after  the  selection  has  been 
made  on  the  basis  of  two  other  characters,  not  one  out  of  every  ten  young 
female  corpses,  but  one  out  of  the  one  twenty-fourth  already  selected, 
which  would  mean  i  x  i  x  TV  or  ^i¥.  That  is,  a  body  correspond- 


Two  Identical  Finger  Prints  319 


ing  in  the  first  three  characteristics  only  of  those  given,  would  be  found 
only  once  in  240  times,  or  the  chance  of  the  body  being,  not  Marie  Roget, 
but  some  one  else,  as  judged  by  the  presence  of  three  characteristics, 
would  be  239  out  of  240,  a  fairly  safe  chance  to  take. 

But  we  have  still  left  some  six  more  characters,  each  one  of  which  is 
to  increase,  to  a  constantly  greater  amount,  the  amount  of  chance.  The 
fourth  character,  not  an  uncommon  one  for  a  young  girl,  might  be  con- 
sidered as  occurring  in  one  out  of  three;  the  fifth,  once  in  eight  times,  the 
sixth,  once  in  five,  and  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth,  each  flower  being 
a  separate  character,  once  in  ten  times  for  each  flower.  Multiplying  these 
figures,  expressed  as  fractions,  into  the  previous  ones,  we  have 


which  yields  the  prodigious  total  of  28.80o.ooo  This  means  that,  by 
the  doctrine  of  chances,  only  one  girl's  corpse  in  twenty-eight  million, 
eight  hundred  thousand  could  have  all  nine  characteristics.  These  nine 
characters,  then,  no  one  of  which  is  in  itself  at  all  uncommon,  when 
taken  together,  would  serve  to  designate  one  person  out  of  nearly 
thirty  millions.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  each  added  character  increases 
the  total  vastly  more  than  do  any  of  the  previous  ones.  Just  one  more 
character  added  to  the  nine,  and  found  once  in  every  ten  girls,  would  in- 
crease the  twenty-eight  millions  to  two  hundred  and  eighty  millions,  and 
so  on.  An  eleventh  character,  also  found  once  in  ten  girls,  would  select 
and  distinguish  this  body  from  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe,  and  more, 
for  it  would  increase  the  chance  of  a  coincidence  to  one  in  more  than  two 
billions. 

We  have  thus  obtained  the  formula  for  calculating  the  chance  of 
occurrence  of  any  number  of  details  :  we  first  estimate  the  chance  of  occur- 
rence of  each  detail  separately;  we  put  it  in  the  form  of  a  fraction,  and  we 
multiply  all  the  fractions  together.  The  result  will  give-the  chance  of  occurrence. 

The  reason  for  this  rule  of  chance  may  be  readily  worked  out  by  the 
following  method.  Suppose  we  have  in  a  cup  the  four  letters  a,  b,  c,  d, 
either  just  the  four,  or  an  equal  number  of  each,  as  25  a's,  25  b's,  25  c's,  and 
25  cTs;  and  suppose  we  wish  to  draw  a  c.  If  the  letters  are  well  mixed 
there  is  one  chance  in  four,  or  |  of  a  chance.  Now  let  us  take  another 
cup,  with  six  letters  equally  represented,  e,  f,  g,  h,  i,  j,  and  wish  to  draw 
an  h;  we  have  here  one  chance  in  six,  or  £  of  a  chance. 

But  now  let  us  suppose  that  we  wish  to  draw  the  two  letters  ch,  one 
from  each  bowl,  and  get  both  at  the  same  time;  it  is  now  only  once  in 
four  times  that  we  can  get  a  c,  and  then,  having  obtained  this,  only  once 
in  six  times  that  we  also  get  an  h.  That  is,  the  chance  of  getting  from  the 
two  bowls  c  and  h  in  succession  is  4  x  6,  or  24.  If  this  is  not  clear,  we  shall 
find  that  the  possible  combinations  of  letters  to  be  taken  from  the  two 


320  Personal  Identification 


bowls  are:  ae,  of,  ag,  ah,  ai,  aj;  be,  bf,  bg,  bh,  bi,  bj;  ce,  cf,  eg,  ch,  ci,  cj; 
de,  df,  dg,  dh,  di,  dj;  twenty-four  in  all,  and  with  an  equal  chance  of  getting 
any  one  of  them.  If  there  were  a  third  bowl,  with  ten  more  letters  in  it, 
A%  /,  m,  etc.,  and  suppose  that,  after  succeeding  in  drawing  from  the  others 
at  the  same  trial  the  desired  c  and  h,  we  were  expected  to  draw  a  q  from 
this  third  bowl,  the  chance  would  be  naturally  but  one  in  ten.  But,  as 
we  can  hope  to  get  the  c  and  the  h,  so  that  we  are  ready  to  try  our  luck  at 
the  third  bowl  but  once  in  twenty-four  times,  and  if  then  we  have  but  one 
chance  in  ten  of  getting  the  q,  the  actual  chance  of  drawing  in  succession 
the  c  from  the  first  bowl,  the  h  from  the  second,  and  the  q  from  the  third 
is  once  in  24  x  10  times,  or  240.  In  other  words,  taking  one  letter  from 
each  of  the  three  bowls  in  succession  there  are  just  240  combinations, 
which  are  made  by  taking  each  of  the  previous  24  combinations  in  con- 
nection with  each  one  df  the  ten  in  the  third  bowl. 

If  a  fourth  bowl  had  only  three  letters,  with  3  of  a  chance  of  drawing 
one  of  them;  when  added  to  the  rest  it  would,  even  with  its  small  number 
of  letters,  make  the  problem  three  times  as  difficult,  as  it  would  increase 
the  number  of  combinations  threefold,  and  make  the  chance  one  in  720. 

This  problem  of  the  letters  in  bowls  is,  however,  only  another  form 
of  that  of  the  identification  of  Marie  Roget;  the  letters  in  each  set  stand- 
ing for  the  other  characters.  For  the  first,  the  small  size,  it  was  supposed 
that  this  occurred  but  once  in  four  times;  that  is,  that  it  represented  the 
c  of  the  first  bowl,  and  so  on.  The  characteristics  actually  known  to  have 
been  present  in  the  girl  sought  are  represented  by  the  successive  letters 
desired,  chq,  etc.,  which,  taken  in  combination,  make  the  likelihood  that 
the  body  could  be  any  one  else  than  the  one  known  to  have  these  char- 
acteristics as  remote  as  the  possible  chances  against  drawing  all  these 
letters  in  succession  from  a  series  of  nine  bewls. 

To  come  now  to  the  actual  case,  that  of  the  identity  of  a  finger  print, 
each  one  of  the  definite  details  is  as  individual  as  were  the  nine  characters 
upon  which  the  identification  of  Marie  Roget  was  based.  Probably  they 
are  much  more  so,  as  many  of  the  latter,  like  the  size,  were  rather  vague. 
They  are  of  course  minute,  but  this  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  be 
of  as  much  value  in  identification  as  larger  and  more  obvious  characters. 
Any  nine  details  selected  from  the  right  middle  finger  of  Bangor  Billy 
would  be  equal  in  identification  value  to  any  of  those  used  in  identifying 
Marie,  and  the  chance  of  finding  the  same  nine  in  any  other  print  would 
be  probably  much  less  than  that  of  finding  a  second  body  with  identical 
points. 

There  is,  however,  in  all  of  these  problems  involving  chance,  an  im- 
portant factor  which,  in  our  present  lack  of  precise  knowledge,  we  have  to 
assume;  and  that  is,  the  exact,  or  even  approximate,  percentage  of  occur- 
rence of  the  different  details,  i.e.,  the  number  of  different  letters  to  put  into 


No  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints  321 

each  bowl.  In  the  Marie  Roget  problem  we  did  not  know  by  statistics 
how  large  a  percentage  of  girls  were  small,  like  the  corpse;  we  only  assumed 
that  it  was  one  in  four.  We  find  in  the  finger  print  in  question  a  fork, 
opening  downward,  and  formed  by  the  second  and  third  ridges,  counting 
from  the  delta  (15  in  Figure  128).  We  have  no  definite  data  for  knowing 
the  percentage  of  occurrence  of  this  detail  in  ulnar  loops  with  a  count 
of  six  ridges,  but  the  variability  of  the  ridges  and  their  details  in  general 
is  so  great  that  we  may  be  warranted  in  asserting  that  it  is  small.  As  this 
point  cannot  now  be  determined,  it  seems  fair  to  give  it  a  percentage  of 
occurrence  much  in  excess  of  what  can  be  possibly  the  case,  and  assume 
that  it  occurs  in  this  type  of  pattern  once  in  four  times,  or  J;  that  is, 
our  first  bowl  has  four  letters  in  it. 

For  the  second  detail  we  may  take  the  end  designated  as  C  in  Figure 
128,  and  may  assume  that  this,  too,  occurs  in  such  patterns  once  in  four 
times.  We  may  then  select  seven  other  conspicuous  details,  and  give  to 
each  the  same  percentage  of  occurrence.  The  chance  of  duplicating  all 
of  them  in  a  single  print  is,  according  to  our  rule,  4x4x4x4  and  so  on  to 
9,  that  is,  49,  or  262,144.  With  the  chance  of  occurrence  as  assumed, 
which  is  very  much  too  great,  we  may  expect  a  duplication  of  all  nine  of 
these  details  once  in  about  250,000  times  in  ulnar  loops  with  a  ridge 
count  of  6;  but  this  count  of  6  is  itself  not  very  common,  and  would 
scarcely  occur  oftener  than  once  in  25  prints.  Therefore,  to  find  these 
nine  details  duplicated  in  the  right  sort  of  print,  one  would  have  to  look 
over,  not  the  250,000  odd  prints  first  computed,  but  this  sum  multiplied  by 
25,  or  6,553,600. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  absurd  to  use  anywhere  near  as  small  a  ratio 
as  4  to  1,  for  the  percentage  of  occurrence  of  any  one  of  these  details;  it 
would  be  rather  1  in  50,  or  1  in  100,  in  either  of  which  cases  the  final  re- 
sult, although  using  only  nine  details  as  before,  would  pass  the  power  of 
the  human  mind  to  conceive.  Thus,  using  50  instead  of  4,  the  chance  of 
duplicating  these  nine  details  would  be  one  to  the  ninth  power  of  50,  which 
equals  1,953,125,000,000,000,  one  quadrillion,  nine  hundred  and  fifty-three 
trillion,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  billion,  a  sum  more  than  one  million 
times  the  number  of  human  inhabitants  of  the  entire  earth. 

If  such  inconceivably  great  numbers  result  from  calculating  the  chances 
involved  in  the  duplication  of  only  nine  ridge  details,  what  would  be  the 
results  if  the  chances  were  calculated  of  duplicating  all  of  the  details  that 
actually  occur?  In  the  central  part  of  the  finger  print  under  consideration, 
we  have  shown  (Figure  128)  15  forks  and  20  ends,  in  all  35  separate  de- 
tails. At  the  low  estimate  that  each  of  these  might  be  found  once  in 
four  times,  far  below  the  actual  truth,  the  chances  against  their  recur- 
rence in  the  same  combination  in  a  second  print  would  be  the  35th  power 
of  4;  1,180,591,620,737,891,303,424;  more  than  one  sextillion.  When 


322  Personal  Identification 

even  a  single  new  detail  is  added  to  this,  —  that  is,  when  the  35th  power 
is  raised  to  the  36th,  —  this  number  is  greatly  increased,  yet  36  or  37  de- 
tails is  a  very  small  number  to  find  in  an  ordinary  print.  With  36  details 
we  get  nearly  five  sextillions  of  combinations,  —  that  is,  of  chances,  —  and 
by  adding  4  more  features,  making  40  in  all,  we  get  more  than  a  septillion. 
If  an  entire  print  be  counted  and  not  merely  the  middle  portion,  there 
are  found  from  60  to  100  separate  details;  and  with  60,  still  with  but  one 
chance  in  four  for  the  duplication  of  a  single  detail,  the  total  chance  is  but 
one  in  the  number  1,329,227,999,290,590,813,080,818,239,800,344,576, 
that  is,  more  than  one  undecillion.  With  100  separate  details  the  chance 
of  duplication  is  one  in  a  number  composed  of  61  separate  digits. 

As  practically  any  number  of  details  from  perhaps  thirty  to  a  hundred 
might  be  used  as  the  basis  of  such  a  calculation,  and  since  also  the  chance 
for  the  occurrence  of  a  single  feature  may  be  assumed  at  anything  between 
four,  the  number  usually  taken,  and  fifty  or  even  a  hundred,  it  is  to  be 
expected  that  the  different  investigators  who  have  busied  themselves 
with  similar  calculations  should  arrive  at  widely  different  results  Nor  is 
this  any  disparagement  of  the  method  or  the  results,  since  all  agree  in  the 
statement  that  the  chance  of  duplicating  a  finger  print  are  practically 
incalculable.  Galton,  whose  figures  are  much  the  lowest  of  all,  gives  the 
chance  of  duplication  as  one  in  sixty -four  billions,*  and  if  any  one  finds 
this  number  too  small  upon  which  to  base  a  conviction,  let  him  multiply 
this  number  by  itself,  and  he  will  get  the  chance  of  the  duplication  of  two 
fingers.  Still,  as  it  is,  the  64,000,000,000  possible  patterns  of  Galton 's 
estimate  are  more  than  four  times  as  many  as  there  are  fingers  in  the 
world,  counting  the  number  of  human  inhabitants  as  1,400,000,000,  the 
latest  estimate.  This  number,  confessedly  a  low  one,  would  thus  supply, 
without  repeating,  four  and  one-half  worlds  like  ours,  each  with 
1,400,000,000  inhabitants. 

For  example,  both  Balthazard  and  Seymour  base  their  estimates  upon 
100  details,  each  with  a  possibility  of  recurring  once  in  four  times.  The 
former  uses  all  the  figures,  as  calculated  (the  100th  power  of  4),  while  the 
latter  uses  ciphers  to  mark  the  places  following  the  first  digit.  Their  re- 
sults are  thus  as  follows: 

Balthazard :  1,606,937,974,174,171,729,761,809,705,564,167,968,221,- 
676,069,604,401,795,301,376. 

Seymour :  1 ,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,- 
000,000,000,000,000,000,000. 

Something  of  the  possibilities  of  variation  in  a  finger  print  may  be 
shown  by  a  glance  at  the  following  five  illustrations,  which  show  some  of 

*Galton    used   the   English    method  of   notation,  and   wrote    "  sixty-four   thousand 
millions." — Finger  Prints,  p.  110. 


No  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints 


323 


the  details  of  certain  complicated  forms, —  which  show  well  their  individual 
variation  when  compared  with  Figure  126  and  with  each  other.  Figure 
129  is  a  typical  twin  loop,  with  numerous  islands,  in  rows  between  the 
ridges,  suggesting  that  these  minute  parts  are  the  vestiges  of  ridges,  lost 
or  suppressed  during  early  development;  and  Figure  130  shows  the  35 


FIGURE  129.  A  typical  Twin-Loop, 
magnified  2  diameters.  Note  the  numer- 
ous "suppressed  ridges,"  alternating  with 
the  well-developed  ones.  So  far  as  has 
been  observed  (from  the  second  year  of 
life  on  to  middle  age)  these  are  as  constant 
as  the  normal  ones,  and  never  become  full 
ridges  or  disappear. 


FIGURE  130.  The  35  separate  forks 
of  the  previous  figure,  isolated  from  the 
rest,  and  shown  at  the  same  enlargement. 


forks  of  this  print,  drawn  by  themselves.  In  the  same  way  Figure  131 
is  a  lateral  pocket,  another  variety  of  a  whorl,  having  no  less  than  50  forks 
and  60  ends,  which  are  shown  by  themselves  in  the  two  next  figures  (Fig- 
ures 132  and  133).  The  large  system  of  forks  that  appears  at  the  head  of 


324 


Personal  Identification 


the  loop  is  a  rare  peculiarity  that  has  never  previously  been  brought  to 
the  attention  of  the  authors,  and  forms  a  striking  characteristic  of  this 
particular  finger. 

A  convenient  method  of  bringing  out  and  counting  the  forks  and  ends 
in  a  given  finger  print,  devised  by  Mr.  Albert  S.  Osborn,  the  handwriting 
expert,  is  shown  in  the  next  figure  (Figure  134).  An  enlarged  photograph 
of  the  print  is  covered  with  one  hundred  small  squares,  ten  on  a  side,  and 
the  details  in  each  square  counted  separately.  The  results  should  be  set 
down  in  the  corresponding  squares  of  a  sheet  of  paper,  representing  a  fork 
by  an/ and  an  end  by  an  e,  one  letter  for  each  separate  detail.  Naturally, 
as  the  area  of  separate  prints  of  the  same  finger  varies  in  accordance  with 


FIGURE   131.      A       typical       Lateral 
Pocket  Loop,  magnified  2  diameters. 

the  amount  of  pressure,  slight  rolling,  and  other  conditions  when  the  print 
is  taken,  the  actual  number  of  details  is  of  but  little  value,  but  the  location 
of  these  details,  especially  through  the  region  of  the  pattern  proper,  is 
often  extremely  convenient.  It  will  be  noticed,  as  indicative  of  the  struc- 
ture of  a  pattern,  that  the  number  of  details  is  especially  large  in  the  squares 
which  include  the  turns  of  the  loop,  and  the  disturbance  caused  by  the 
delta;  that  is,  in  those  regions  where  there  is  the  greatest  amount  of  dis- 
turbance in  the  course  of  the  ridges.  The  original  photograph  used  here 
gave  a  magnification  of  9  diameters,  a  convenient  size  for  this  work.  The 
illustration  here  given  is  reduced. 

The  forks  and  ends  alone,  isolated  from  the  rest,  are  shown  by  them- 
selves in  Figure  135,  which  furnishes  in  itself  a  sufficient  argument  against 
the  proposition  that  a  single  finger  print  can  be  duplicated.  A  finger 
print  is  too  complex  a  structure  and  its  numerous  details,  definite  as  they 


No  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints 


325 


are,  are  as  arbitrary  in  their  occurrence  and  arrangement  as  are  the  pebbles 
on  the  beach,  no  square  foot  of  which  could  ever  be  duplicated  by  any 
other.  It  is  always  so  with)  natural  objects;  the  details  are  so  numberless, 
and  so  independent  of  the  rest,  that  there  are  no  duplicates.  No  two 
heads  of  clover,  no  two  ears  of  corn,  can  be  exactly  alike;  an  instantane- 
ous photograph  of  ocean  waves  can  never  be  duplicated,  save  by  a  second 
print  from  the  same  negative.  It  is  claimed  that,  in  the  manufacture  of 
chemical  salts  the  same  conditions  cannot  be  exactly  reproduced  in  two 
separate  operations,  and  that  consequently  the  results  will  differ  in  such 
details  as  the  form  and  size  of  the  crystals.  So  marked  are  these  differ- 


\ 
\ 

\\ 

\ 


f ''- 


'AJ 


\ 


FIGURE  132  The  50  separate  forks 
of  Figure  131,  isolated  from  the  rest,  and 
shown  at  the  same  enlargement.  The 
large  complex  of  forks  at  the  head  of  the 
loop,  which  adds  so  materially  to  the 
total  count,  and  forms  so  distinctive  a 
character  in  the  print,  is  a  striking  pe- 
culiarity that  has  never  been  brought  to 
the  attention  of  the  authors.  It  is  not 
the  result  of  a  scar. 


FIGURE  133.  The  60  ends  of  Figure 
131,  isolated  from  the  rest.  These,  and 
the  forks  in  Figure  132,  110  details  in  all, 
are  to  be  found  in  this  one  print,  shown 
as  a  whole  in  Figure  131.  In  order  to 
duplicate  this,  each  one  of  the  110  must 
occur  in  its  proper  relation  to  the  rest, 
and  with  the  same  relation  to  each  ridge. 
In  addition  to  all  this,  the  duplication 
must  include  the  numerous  islands, 
which  are  not  considered  here. 


ences,  as  seen  under  the  microscope,  that  in  a  criminal  case  involving 
arsenic,  for  example,  an  expert  can  often  match  a  sample  with  a  lot  ob- 
tained from  a  particular  druggist,  and  thus  prove  the  source  of  supply 
beyond  doubt. 

Again,  when  two  natural  objects  are  actual  duplicates  as  far  as  the 
eye  can  detect,  all  trace  of  even  a  remote  similarity  will  vanish  if  the 
objects  be  sufficiently  magnified.  It  is  conceivable  that  two  maple  leaves 
might  be  found  of  exactly  the  same  size  and  shape,  with  the  margins 
everywhere  coincident,  and  with  the  ribs  showing  the  same  number  and 


326 


Personal  Identification 


FIGURE  134.  Right  thumb  of  a  little  girl  (R.  E.  P.),  divided  into  100  squares, 
according  to  the  method  of  A.  S.  Osborn,  for  convenience  in  counting  the  details. 
These  are  shown  isolated  in  the  next  figure,  and  are  enumerated  in  corresponding 
squares  in  the  Table  that  accompanies  the  text.  The  work  was  originally  done  on 
an  enlarged  photograph  and  is  presented  here  reduced  to  3  diameters. 


f 

o 

e 

3 
1 

f 

ff 

f 

f 

5 

e 

ee 

e 

e 

ee 

o 

ee 

ee 

11 

f 

f 

f 

3 

e 

e 

ee 

e 

e 

eeee 

eeee 

ee 

ee 

o 

18 

f 

f 

ff 

fffff 

fff 

12 

eee 

ee 

eee 

ee 

eee 

eee 

ee 

o 

18 

ff 

ff 

fffff 

ff 

f 

f 

13 

ee 

e 

e 

ee 

ee 

12 

0 

f 

ff 

f 

f 

5 

ee 

e 

20 

f 

f 

3 

e 

ee 

eeeeee 

e 

e 

e 

e 

e 

eee 

e 

18 

o 

o 

f 

ff 

f 

o 

4 

ee 

eee 

e 

eeee 

e 

ee 

13 

f 

o 

o 

o 

o 

1 

e 

e 

ee 

e 

5 

f 

1 

e 

e 

ee 

e 

e 

e 

eeeee 

ee 

14 

50  forks;  130  ends. 


Table  to  Accompany  Figure  134,  Indicating  the  Features  Occurring  in 
the  100  Squares,     f  =  fork;  e  =  end. 


No  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints  327 

arrangement,  yet,  if  a  single  interspace  between  corresponding  ribs  was 
magnified  enough  to  show  the  finer  network,  all  similarity  would  vanish 
at  once.  In  butterflies  of  a  species  having  a  complicated  marking  on 
their  wings  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to  find  two  that,  even  to  the  unaided 
eye,  exactly  correspond,  and  even  in  such  a  case  the  separate  scales  which 
form  a  given  spot  would  be  found  to  differ  in  number  in  the  two,  and  this 
could  be  seen  with  a  magnifying  power  not  exceeding  10  or  15  diameters. 
Even  two  hairs,  each  but  a  half-inch  in  length,  would  be  found  absolutely 
unlike  if  magnified  sufficiently  to  show  the  epidermic  markings  that  cover 
the  surface  with  a  fine  tracery. 

This  last  is  confessedly  an  extreme  case,  and  would  require  a  magni- 


FIGURE  135.  The  isolated  forks  and  ends  of  the  previous 
figure;  50  forks  and  130  ends.  Note  several  fork  complexes, 
any  one  of  which  would  be  sufficiently  characteristic  of  the 
pattern  to  identify  it.  The  print  shows  also  numerous  char- 
acteristic islands. 

fication  of  probably  600  diameters  to  show  it,  but  these  are  not  high 
powers  for  a  professional  microscopist,  and  with  the  proper  apparatus 
such  an  object  can  be  photographed  at  the  magnification  indicated,  so 
that  the  results  could  be  readily  shown  to  any  one  who  cared  to  examine. 
It  is  the  individuality  of  the  brain,  the  eye,  the  muscles  and  bones  of 
the  arm,  which  come  to  visible  expression  in  the  individual  handwriting, 


328 


Personal  Identification 


and  this  individuality  is  so  great  that  no  two  men  write  alike.  The 
skilled  flourishes  of  the  expert  forger,  although  they  may  deceive  the 
unaided  eye,  when  magnified  but  a  few  diameters  betray  by  their  uncertain 
course  that  they  are  but  clumsy  copies,  made  by  another  and  a  different 
human  mechanism. 

Thus  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  print  of  every  human  finger,  or  of 
every  patch  of  palm  or  sole,  with  its  numerous  forks,  ends,  breaks,  and 
islands,  is  more  individual  than  the  most  complicated  signature,  and  in- 
volves many  more  individual  details. 

Finally,  there  is  never  the  slightest  doubt  of  the  impossibility  of  the 
duplication  of  a  finger  print,  or  even  of  the  small  part  of  one,  on  the  part 
of  any  one  who  has  carefully  studied  the  subject  at  first  hand,  whether 
finger-print  expert  or  anatomist;  the  only  doubters  are  those  who  have 


FIGURE  136.  Print  of  the  right 
middle  finger  of  J.  C.,  magnified  2  di- 
ameters. The  area  enclosed  in  the 
square  is  shown  in  Figure  138,  at  an 
enlargement  of  11  diameters.  The 
line  used  in  taking  the  ridge  count  is 
given,  and  shows  a  count  of  18. 

never  taken  the  trouble  to  look  for  themselves,  and  who  argue  from  the 
basis  of  their  own  prejudices  and  preconceived  opinions.  These  critics 
are  fond  of  asserting  that,  even  granting  that  there  are  minute  differences 
in  similar  finger  prints,  which  can  be  detected  by  experts,  yet,  for  all  prac- 
tical purposes  these  differences  are  insufficient;  that,  in  short,  these  differ- 
ences are  too  slight  for  the  "ordinary  man"  to  understand.  To  meet 
this  objection  the  authors  have  been  at  some  pains  to  look  over  a  large 
collection  of  finger  prints,  selecting  from  them  two  which  are  the  nearest 


ATo  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints 


329 


alike  that  could  be  found.  These  are  also  examples  of  the  commonest, 
and  simplest  type,  the  Ulnar  Loop,  where  there  is  less  range  of  variation 
than  in  any  of  the  rest.  They  are  both  taken  from  right  middle  fingers 
where,  with  the'  exception  of  the  little  fingers,  this  type  occurs  with  the 
greatest  frequency  (3,719  out  of  5,000).  The  separation  of  these  two 
prints,  then,  intentionally  presents  the  most  difficult  case  possible  for  the 


FIGURE  137"!  Print  of  the  right 
middle  finger  of  J.  W.,  magnified  2 
diameters,.,  .This  was  selected  from 
several  hundred  prints  of  right 
middle  fingers,  in  an  endeavor  to 
get  the  nearest  match  to  Fig.  136. 
Compare  also  another '  very  simi- 
lar .one  in  this  chapter  (Figure 
i ''  126);  aKo  the  details  of  the  pat- 
terns of  Figures  126  and  136, 
shown  in~Figures  116  and  117 of  the 
previous  chapter.  The  area  en- 
closed in  the  square  is  shown  in 
Figure  139,at  an  enlargement  of  11 
diameters.  The  line  used  in  taking 
the  ridge  count  is  also  given,  and 
shows  a  count  of  15. 

"ordinary"  or  "practical"  man  specified  by  our  critic,  and  yet  it  is  for 
him  (and  the  critic)  that  this  analysis  is  especially  written. 

At  the  natural  size,  just  as  they  were  taken,  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  these  two  prints  do  look  very  much  alike,  but  shown  at  the  slight 
magnification  of  4  diameters  (Figures  136  and  137),  a  few  of  the  most 
striking  differences  may  be  perceived.  Of  these  the  most  important 
technically  is  the  difference  in  ridge  count,  previously  explained;  that  is, 


330 


Personal  Identification 


the  number  of  ridges  in  each  crossed  by  a  line  drawn  straight  from  the 
point  of  the  delta  to  the  point  of  the  core.  This  line  has  been  drawn  in 
both  figures,  and  we  think  that  even  the  ordinary  man  would  experience 
little  difficulty  in  counting  18  in  the  print  of  J.  C.,  and  15  in  that  of 
J.  W. 


FIGURE  138      The  square  area  marked  in  Figure  136,  enlarged  to  11  diameters. 

mm 


FIGURE   139.     The  square  area  marked  in  Figure  137,  enlarged  to  11  diameters. 


No  Two  Identical  Finger  Prints  331 

.  Coming  now  to  the  details,  the  authors  call  the  attention,  not  to  the 
entire  area  of  the  prints,  but  to  simply  a  very  limited  portion  of  it, —  the 
part  bounded  by  the  square,  which  includes  the  delta  in  each  case.  Al- 
though the  prints  were  selected  for  general  similarity,  especial  pains  were 
taken  to  select  also  prints  with  similar  deltas,  and  here,  at  the  2  diameter 
enlargement,  there  is  in  fact  little  difference  to  be  seen.  By  a  sufficiently 
larger  magnification,  however,  even  here  the  similarity  largely  vanishes, 
and  the  ridges  are  seen  not  to  correspond  in  the  slightest  degree  (Figures 
138  and  139).  Even  the  deltas,  which  at  2  diameters  seemed  so  similar, 
are  distinctly  unlike,  for  in  the  print  taken  from  the  individual  J.  C. 
(Figure  138,)  both  of  the  two  lower  legs  extend  entirely  across  the  square, 
while  in  that  of  J.  W.  (Figure  139,)  the  one  on  the  right  is  very  short. 
Below  the  delta  in  the  first  there  are  three  ends  in  succession,  directed 
toward  the  right,  while  in  the  second  there  is  one  end  directed  toward 
the  left;  then  a  continuous  ridge;  then  a  second  end  to  the  left;  then 
one  to  the  right,  and  then  a  second  continuous  one.  Thus,  with  an  en- 
largement of  only  16.5  diameters,  that  of  a  good  pocket  magnifier,  there 
is  in  this  region  no  similarity  other  than  the  general  form  and  position 
of  the  delta;  in  a  region,  that  is,  where  at  the  natural  size,  or  at  an  en- 
largement of  only  4  diameters,  the  similarity  seemed  so  great  as  to 
cause  confusion. 

These  two  prints,  shown  in  Figures  136  and  137,  show  also  the  marked 
difference  in  the  fineness  of  the  ridges,  which  in  itself  constitutes  a  striking 
character,  aiding  the  eye  not  a  little  in  the  selection  of  a  given  print  from 
a  file.  The  actual  enlargement  of  the  two  is  the  same,  but  the  finer 
ridges  of  J.  W.,  a  peculiarity  noted  in  all  the  prints  of  this  man,  give  one 
the  impression  that  this  print  is  not  so  much  enlarged  as  the  other  one. 
Another  thing  brought  out  by  the  two  prints,  and  especially  by  the  enlarged 
details  (Figures  138  and  139),  is  the  difference  in  printing,  which,  through 
variation  in  the  amount  of  pressure,  the  amount  of  ink,  and  so  on,  gives 
very  different  results.  Of  the  two,  Figure  138  is  the  better  print,  and  shows 
the  sweat  pores  so  well  that  they  could  be  severally  counted;  in  Figure 
139  on  the  other  hand,  although  several  sweat  pores  are  indicated,  mainly 
by  notches,  they  cannot  in  general  be  well  made  out. 


CHAPTER  X 


"Twenty  years  have  elapsed  since  the  discovery  of  'Finger  prints'  by 
Francis  Gallon.  The  average  man  does  not  realize  that  this  mode  of  identi- 
fication is  absolutely  unassailable,  never  having  failed  when  fairly  tried. 
Like  ridges  have  never  been  found  on  the  fingers  of  any  two  persons.  To-day 
it  is  utilized  in  many  odd  but  useful  ways.  Unlettered  persons  no  longer 
need  to  sign  documents  with  the  mark  of  the  cross;  a  finger  print  is  far  more 
positive  and  absolutely  proof  against  forgery.  Banks  are  already  confirming 
signatures  and  corporations  are  beginning  to  identify  employees  in  this  way. 
Finger  prints  are  taken  as  signatures  to  receipts  for  payment  to  the  workmen 
constructing  the  Panama  Canal. 

"Lieutenant  Faurot,  of  the  New  York  Police  Department,  has  suggested 
also  that  '  birth  certificates  be  accompanied  by  the  baby's  and  mother's  finger 
prints,  and  it  has  been  ifiooted  even  that  all  individuals  establish  a  record  of 
their  identity  by  depositing  their  finger  prints  in  the  police  or  some  other 
legally  designated  office,  to  be  duplicated  at  a  central  office  at  the  national 
capitol.  Since  the  finger  prints  are  reliable  until  decomposition  has  obliter- 
ated them,  their  value  in  establishing  lost  identity  is  obvious.  Many  suits 
for  fraudulent  insurance  claims  would  be  prevented  if  the  insured  were  com- 
pelled to  add  a  finger  print  to  the  usual  signature,  furnishing  mute  but 
unerring  evidence."  —  From  "  The  New  Reference  Atlas  of  the  World,' ' 
published  by  C.  S.  Hammond  and  Co.,  New  York,  1915,  p.  176. 

GALILEO,   Copernicus,  Newton;    Stevenson,   Fulton,   Morse;   the 
world  is  justly  proud  of  her  roll  of  great  men  who  have  brought 
forth  great  inventions,  and  revealed  great  natural  laws.     Yet  no 
one  of  them  all  has  done  his  work  alone.     Each  achievement  is  due  to  the 
labor  of  many  generations  of  men,  and  when  the  world  is  brought  up  to 
the  point  of  expectancy,  one  individual  takes  the  final  step,  and  his  name 
becomes  immortal  on  the  lips  of  men. 

Who  first  noticed  that  the  palmar  surface  of  the  hand  and  fingers 
was  covered  with  ridges  as  well  as  wrinkles,  or  that  the  ridges  formed 
themselves  in  places  into  definite  patterns,  no  one  may  say.  This  ob- 
servation has,  without  doubt,  been  made  by  countless  individuals  of  early 
times  in  an  idle  moment.  The  earliest  record  of  such  a  discovery  is  proba- 
bly that  carved  in  Indian  picture  writing  upon  the  smooth  face  of  a  cliff 
in  Nova  Scotia,  where  the  outline  of  a  hand,  probably  traced  around  in 

332 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification 


333 


schoolboy  fashion,  is  covered  over  with  two  sorts  of  lines,  regular  and 
parallel  ones  to  represent  the  ridges,  and  irregular  and  scrawly  ones  to 
represent  the  wrinkles.  Upon  the  ball  of  the  thumb  is  a  conspicuous 
spiral,  and  upon  three  of  the  other  fingers  are  suggestions  of  other  patterns 
(Figure  140).*  As  this  scratched  picture  is  very  old,  at  least  older  than 
the  first  visit  of  Europeans  to  the  region,  it  stands  at  present  as  the  oldest 


FIGURE  140.  An  aboriginal  Indian  pictograph 
carved  upon  the  smooth  surface  of  a  slaty  rock  on  the 
edge  of  Kejemkoojic  Lake,  Nova  Scotia.  Notice  the 
representations  of  the  finger  patterns.  Upon  the  palm 
there  are  two  sets  of  lines;  the  parallel  series  crudely 
represent  the  friction  ridges,  the  whilly  irregular  ones 
the  wrinkles.  One-half  the  size  c.f  the  original  draw- 
ing. From  author's  article  in  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
1903.  After  Mallory. 

recorded  observation  of  the  finger  prints,  although  something  still  older 
may  at  any  time  be  discovered. 

The  first  definite  mention  of  the  patterns  on  the  balls  of  the  fingers 
was  made  in  1686  by  Marcello  Malpighi,  Professor  of  Anatomy  of  the 
University  of  Bologna,  who  spent  an  active  life  in  investigating  all  parts 
of  the  human  body  by  means  of  that  recently  discovered  instrument,  the 
microscope,  and  thus  founded  the  science  of  histology.  The  visitor  to 
Bologna  is  still  shown  the  rooms  where  he  worked  and  the  lecture  hall 
where  he  first  expounded  to  his  students  the  details  of  the  human  kidney, 

*  Col.  Garrick  Mallory,  in  Tenth  Annwal  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washing- 
ton, 1888-89,  p.  740,  Figure  12.">5. 


334 


Personal  Identification 


the  complicated  tubular  structure  of  which  he  had  discovered  by  means 
of  his  new  lenses.  His  successor,  Galvani,  discovered,  also  in  the  same 
room,  that  form  of  electricity  which  long  bore  his  name,  galvanism,  and 


FIGURE  141.  Marcello  Malpighi  (1628-1694).  Portrait  by  Tabor,  and 
presented  by  Malpighi  to  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  where  it  now  is.  (From 
Locy:  Biology  and  its  Makers,  by  permission  of  the  author.) 

in  the  little  square  in  front  he  now  stands,  carved  in  stone,  delivering  a 
lecture  to  the  passer-by,  wildly  gesticulating,  as  was  his  wont,  with  arms 
stretched  far  apart,  and  with  head  and  body  bent  over  to  his  imaginary 
students. 

And  it  was  doubtless  in  this  spot,  under  the  shadow  of  the  cathedral 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification  335 


of  San  Petronio,  whose  archbishop  has  become  the  latest  pope,  Benedict 
XV,  that  Malpighi  turned  his  attention  to  the  examination  of  the  hand. 
He  found  the  palmar  surface  covered  with  "certain  elevated  ridges" 
which  "describe  divers  figures,"  and  at  the  ends  of  the  fingers  become 
"drawn  into  spirals."  Through  the  middle  of  the  ridges,  when  examined 
with  the  microscope,  he  perceived  "the  open  mouths  of  sweat  glands." 
This  was  all  he  wrote  at  that  time,  yet  the  figures  formed  by  the  ridges  on 


FIGURE   142.      Marcello     Malpighi     (1628-1694). 
Portrait  taken   from  the   Life  of   Malpighi   by   Atti. 
(From  Locy:  Biology  and  its  Makers,  with  the  author's 
permission.) 

the  finger  balls  seem  to  have  made  an  impression  upon  him,  for  a  year 
later  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  he  again  refers  to  them.  "  I  look  at  the  end 
of  a  finger,"  he  writes,  "and  perceive  these  ridges  to  be  drawn  out  into 
loops  or  spirals." 

But  in  Malpighi's  time  a  whole  new  world  had  just  been  opened  up 
by  means  of  the  newly  discovered  tool,  the  microscope,  and  amid  the 
wealth  of  things  now  seen  for  the  first  time,  nobody  could  stop  long  upon 
any  one  object,  especially  so  small  and  simple  a  thing  as  a  finger  tip,  and 
these  facts  seen  by  the  Italian  anatomist  soon  became  forgotten.  Not 
until  1823,  some  hundred  and  thirty  odd  years  after  Malpighi  had  seen 


336  Personal  Identification 


the  dicersas  figuras  of  the  finger  balls,  was  there  any  known  mention  of 
these  structures.  At  this  date  there  was  published  at  Breslau  a  treatise 
on  the  skin  and  the  eye,  the  work  of  Dr.  J.  E.  Purkinje,  Professor  of  Ana- 
tomy in  the  university  there.  The  treatise  is  in  the  form  of  a  small  octavo 
of  fifty -eight  pages,  and  "written  in  a  form  of  Latin  that  is  difficult  to 
translate  accurately  into  free  English."  * 

The  work  is  now  extremely  rare.     Galton  could  not  find  a  single 
copy  in  England,  either  in  public  or  private  libraries,  but  succeeded  after 


FIGURE  143.  John  Evangelist  Purkinje  (1787- 
1869).  (From  Locy:  Biology  and  its  Makers,  with 
the  author's  permission.) 

some  search  in  securing  one  from  the  continent  through  the  librarian  of 
the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of  London.  This  copy  is  still  there.  A 
search  by  one  of  the  authors  in  this  country,  and  an  advertisement  in 
scientific  journals,  located  also  a  single  copy,  that  in  the  Surgeon-General's 
office  in  Washington.  There  are  undoubtedly  several  more  copies  in  the 
universities  of  continental  Europe. 

Its  title  is  a  long  and  formal  one,  stating  that  it  was  presented  by 
John  Evangelist  Purkinje  in  his  public  examination  for  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Medicine,  Dec.  22,  1823,  and  that  its  subject  is  "  Commentatio 
de  Examine  physiologico  Organi  Vims  et  Systematis  Cutanei";  that  is,^a 

*  Galton,  "Finger  Prints,"  1892,  p.  84. 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification  337 

commentary  of  the  physiological  examination  of  the  organ  of  vision  and 
the  cutaneous  system.  In  a  small  part  of  this  little  pamphlet  he  speaks 
of  "the  wonderful  arrangement  and  curving  of  the  minute  furrows  con- 
nected with  the  organ  of  touch  on  the  inner  surfaces  of  the  hand  and  foot, 
especially  on  the  last  phalanx  of  each  finger"  (our  italics). 

Of  the  course  of  the  furrows  here  he  made  "numberless  observations" 

and  finally  classified  them  in  nine  groups,  as  follows: 

\ 

1.  Flexures  transverse  (transverse  curves). 

2.  Stria  centralis  longitudinalis  (central  longitudinal  stripe). 

3.  Stria  obliqua  (oblique  stripe). 

4.  Sinus  obliquus  (oblique  loop). 

5.  Amygdalus  (almond). 

6.  Spirula  (spiral). 

7.  Ellipsis  (ellipse). 

8.  Circulus  (circle). 

9.  Vortex  duplicatus  (double  whorl). 

From  the  figures  which  accompany  the  text  it  is  clearly  evident  that 
his  Types  1  and  2  are  arches,  1  being  a  flattened  arch  and  2  a  tented  arch; 
that  3  and  4  are  loops,  with  a  difference  in  the  shape  of  the  core;  that 
5,  6,  7,  and  8  are  whorls,  and  that  9,  his  "double  whorl,"  is  a  twin-loop. 
(See  Chapter  V.) 

This  paper,  remarkable  as  it  was,  and  noteworthy  as  being  the  first 
that  made  any  attempt  to  classify  the  patterns  of  the  finger  balls,  was,  as 
its  title  runs,  "physiological"  only,  and  there  was  no  suggestion  of  the 
application  of  these  variations  in  the  pattern  to  the  problem  of  identi- 
fication. As  in  all  great  inventions  and  discoveries  the  honor  of  first 
proposing  this  must 'be  shared  by  at  least  two  men,  while  others 
have  co-operated  by  furnishing  many  facts  and  suggestions,  necessary 
for  the  practical  working  of  the  system.  These  two  men  were  both  Eng- 
lishmen; they  were  both  living  in  Asia  at  the  time  of  their  discovery,  and 
they  both  announced  their  ideas  through  the  columns  of  an  English  scien- 
tific journal,  entitled  Nature,  within  a  month  of  each  other,  in  the  year 
1880.  In  the  issue  of  October  28  of  that  year,  Dr.  Henry  Faulds,  of 
Tsukiji  Hospital,  Tokio,  published  a  letter  with  the  title  "On  the  Skin 
Furrows  of  the  Hand,"  in  which  he  unfolded  the  method  of  taking  finger 
impressions  with  printer's  ink,  and  at  the  same  time  sent  a  number  of 
samples  to  the  editor. 

He  was  led  to  this  field  of  inquiry  by  finding  finger  marks  on  some 
prehistoric  Japanese  pottery,  which  he  compared  with  the  fingers  of  living 
people.  To  his  amazement  he  found  in  the  latter  the  same  complex  maze 
of  fine  ridges  that  came  out  so  clearly  upon  the  surface  of  the  pottery. 
He  says,  "Where  the  loops  occur  the  innermost  lines  may  simply  break 


338  Personal  Identification 


off  and  end  abruptly;  they  may  end  in  self-returning  loops,  or,  again, 
they  may  go  on  without  breaks  after  turning  round  upon  themselves. 
Some  lines  also  join  or  branch  like  junctions  in  a  railway  map." 

Like  all  later  investigators,  he  employed  prints,  instead  of  the  real 
fingers,  in  his  studies,  and  devised  for  this  a  method  strikingly  like  that 
of  the  present  time.  After  describing  this  he  discusses  the  various  direc- 
tions of  study  to  which  this  new  line  of  work  may  lead,  anticipating  here 
practically  every  line  which  has  been  developed  since  then,  such  as  hered- 
ity, ethnology,  comparisons  with  other  mammals,  etc.  He  suggests  in 
considerable  detail  the  possibility  of  tracing  a  criminal  by  a  chance  im- 
pression, but  evidently  does  not  think  of  the  possibility  of  classifying  the 
impressions  or  of  using  them  for  the  broader  purposes  of  general  identi- 
fication. The  letter  is  so  remarkable  that  we  give  here  the  greater  part 
of  its  contents,  beginning  with  his  rules  for  taking  the  "nature  prints." 

"A  common  slate  or  smooth  board  of  any  kind,  or  a  sheet  of  tin, 
spread  over  very  thinly  and  evenly  with  printer's  ink,  is  all  that  is  required. 
The  parts  of  which  impressions  are  desired  are  pressed  down  steadily  and 
softly,  and  then  are  transferred  to  slightly  damp  paper.  I  have  succeeded 
in  making  very  delicate  impressions  on  glass.  They  are  somewhat  faint 
indeed,  but  would  be  useful  for  demonstrations,  as  details  are  very  well 
shown,  even  down  to  the  minute  pores.  By  using  different  colours  of 
ink,  useful  comparisons  could  be  made  of  two  patterns  by  superposition. 
These  might  be  shown  by  magic  lantern.  I  have  had  prepared  a  number 
of  outline  hands  with  blank  forms  for  entering  such  particulars  of  each 
case  as  may  be  wanted,  and  attach  a  specimen  of  hair  for  microscopic 
examination.  Each  finger-tip  may  best  be  done  singly,  and  people  are 
uncommonly  willing  to  submit  to  the  process.  A  little  hot  water  and 
soap  remove  the  ink.  Benzine  is  still  more  effective.  The  dominancy 
of  heredity  through  these  infinite  varieties  is  sometimes  very  striking.  I 
have  found  unique  patterns  in  a  parent  repeated  with  marvelous  accuracy 
in  his  child.  Negative  results,  however,  might  prove  nothing  in  regard 
to  parentage,  a  caution  which  it  is  important  to  make. 

"I  am  sanguine  that  the  careful  study  of  these  patterns  may  be  use- 
ful in  several  ways: 

"I.  We  may  perhaps  be  able  to  extend  to  other  animals  the  anal- 
ogies found  by  me  to  exist  in  the  monkeys. 

"  II.  These  analogies  may  admit  of  further  analysis,  and  may  assist, 
when  better  understood,  in  ethnological  classification. 

"III.  If  so,  those  which  are  found  in  ancient  pottery  may  become 
of  immense  historical  importance. 

"IV.  The  fingers  of  mummies,  by  special  preparation,  may  yield 
results  for  comparison.  I  am  very  doubtful  of  this,  however. 

"V.     When  bloody  finger  marks,  or  impressions  on  clay,  glass,  etc., 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification  339 

exist,  they  may  lead  to  the  scientific  identification  of  criminals.  Already 
I  have  had  experience  in  two  cases,  and  found  useful  evidence  from  these 
marks.  In  one  case  greasy  finger  marks  revealed  who  had  been  drinking 
some  rectified  spirits.  The  pattern  was  unique,  and  fortunately  I  had 
previously  obtained  a  copy  of  it.  They  agreed  with  microscopic  fidelity. 
In  another  case  sooty  finger  marks  of  a  person  climbing  a  white  wall  were 
of  great  use  as  negative  evidence.  Other  cases  might  occur  in  medico- 
legal  investigations,  as  when  the  hands  only  of  some  mutilated  victim  were 
found.  If  previously  known  they  would  be  much  more  precise  in  value 
than  the  standard  mole  of  the  penny  novelists.  If  unknown  previously, 
heredity  might  enable  an  expert  to  determine  the  relatives  with  consider- 
able probability  in  many  cases,  and  with  absolute  precision  in  some. 
Such  a  case  as  that  of  the  Claimant  even  might  not  be  beyond  the  range 
of  this  principle.  There  might  be  a  recognized  Tichborne  type,  and  there 
might  be  an  Orton  type,  to  one  or  other  of  which  experts  might  relate  the 
case.  Absolute  identity  would  prove  descent  in  some  circumstances." 

At  the  end  of  the  letter  Faulds  adds,  "There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to 
the  advantage  of  having,  besides  their  photographs,  a  nature-copy  of  the 
forever  unchangeable  finger-furrows  of  important  criminals." 

Aside  from  several  suggestions  which  have  not  been  substantiated 
by  later  investigation,  this  author  has  anticipated  in  a  remarkable  manner 
the  most  important  lines  of  the  subject,  even  to  the  identifications  of  a 
man  by  the  traces  of  finger  patterns  left  upon  the  objects  he  has  handled, 
and  the  identification  of  a  detached  hand. 

Viewed  by  itself,  as  the  first  published  suggestion  of  the  use  of  finger 
prints  for  personal  identification,  Dr.  Faulds  might  have  a  legal  claim  to 
the  discovery  of  the  system.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  while  Faulds 
first  noticed  the  impressions  in  1877,  another  Englishman  begaji  to  actually 
use  finger  prints  for  identifying  individuals  in  1858  or  thereabouts,  and 
was  still  continuing  the  practice  at  the  time  of  Faulds'  letter.  This  was 
Sir  William  J.  Herschel,  who  was  "Collector"  (i.e.,  chief  administrator) 
of  the  Hooghly  district  of  Bengal,  India,  for  some  thirty  years  or  more. 
His  first  attempts  concerned  two  contracts  with  natives,  written  in  the 
Bengali  language,  upon  which  he  had  caused  the  signers  to  place  their  inked 
fingers,  in  order  to  frighten  them  sufficiently  to  prevent  them  from  after- 
ward denying  that  they  had  signed  them.  There  seems  then  to  have  been 
no  idea  in  Herschel's  mind  that  these  marks  were  individual,  or  that  they 
could  be  identified.  As  might  be  expected,  however,  this  latter  idea 
developed  with  the  greater  familiarity  of  such  "sign-manuals,"  so  that, 
after  using  finger  prints  for  a  number  of  years,  we  find  Herschel  in  1877 
submitting  a  semi-official  report  to  the  Inspector-General  of  Jails,  asking 
the  permission  to  extend  this  practice,  now  become  a  means  of  identifi- 
cation, to  the  prisoners,  but  without  result.  Within  his  own  province, 


340  Personal  Identification 


however,  he  applied  the  system  extensively;  to  pensioners,  to  prevent 
their  impersonation  by  others  after  their  death,  in  the  office  for  the  Regis- 
tration of  Deeds,  and  to  prisoners,  to  identify  them  if  they  should  escape. 

Unfortunately,  during  all  this  time,  between  1858  and  1880,  while 
Herschel  was  employing  and  extending  a  simple  form  of  finger  print  identi- 
fication, he  seems  never  to  have  published  anything  on  the  subject,  so 
that  Faulds  was  quite  justified  in  considering  his  letter  of  Oct.  28,  1880, 
the  first  mention  of  a  new  idea.  Herschel  replied  at  once  to  the  letter 
of  Faulds  by  another,  which  appeared  in  the  same  periodical  on  November 
22  following,  in  which  he  made  no  claim  to  priority,  but  stated  as  an  in- 
teresting fact  that  he  had  been  employing  the  finger  print  method  "for 
more  than  twenty  years,"  and  had  "introduced  them  for  practical  pur- 
poses in  several  ways  in  India  with  marked  benefit."  He  then  mentioned 
the  three  ways  enumerated  above,  which  he  developed  and  used  practically, 
describing  his  experience  in  the  following  words:  "(1)  First  I  used  it 
for  pensioners  whose  vitality  has  been  a  distracting  problem  to  govern- 
ment in  all  countries.  When  I  found  all  room  for  suspicion  effectually 
removed  here,  I  tried  it  on  a  larger  scale  in  the  several  (2)  registration 
offices  under  me,  and  here  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  every  official 
and  legal  agent  connected  with  these  offices  confess  that  the  use  of  these 
signatures  lifted  off  the  ugly  cloud  of  suspiciousness  which  always  hangs 
over  such  offices  in  India.  It  put  a  summary  and  absolute  stop  to  the 
very  idea  of  either  personation  or  repudiation  from  the  moment  half  a 
dozen  men  had  made  their  marks  and  compared  them  together.  (3)  I 
next  introduced  them  into  the  jail,  where  they  were  not  unneeded.  On 
commitment  to  jail  each  prisoner  had  to  sign  with  his  finger.  Any  official 
visitor  to  the  jail  after  that  could  instantly  satisfy  himself  of  the  identity 
of  the  man  whom  the  jailer  produced  by  requiring  him  to  make  a  signa- 
ture on  the  spot  and  comparing  it  with  that  which  the  books  showed." 

After  a  long  official  experience  Herschel  adds,  in  this  same  letter, 
"  The  ease  with  which  the  signature  is  taken  and  the  hopelessness  of  either 
personation  or  repudiation  are  so  great  that  I  sincerely  believe  that  the 
adoption  of  the  practice  in  places  and  professions  where  such  kinds  ot 
fraud  are  rife  is  a  substantial  benefit  to  morality." 

In  comparing  the  work  of  these  two  men,  Faulds  and  Herschel,  and 
considering  the  long  official  employment  of  a  finger-print  system  by  the 
latter  as  opposed  to  a  three-years'  study  of  them  by  the  former,  it  seems 
but  just  to  agree  with  Galton  that  "  if  the  use  of  finger  prints  ever  becomes 
of  general  importance,  Sir  William  Herschel  must  be  regarded  as  the  first 
who  devised  a  feasible  method  for  regular  use,  and  afterwards  officially 
adopted  it." ' 

If  "we  emphasize  Galton's  words,  "a  feasible  method  for  regular  use," 

*  Galton,  "Finger  Prints,"  1892,  pp.  28-29. 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification  341 

this  claim  may  perhaps  be  allowed,  yet  it  must  ever  be  remembered  that 
Herschel  himself  never  sought  personal  fame  in  the  matter,  and  that  his 
claim  to  preierment  was  first  made,  not  by  himself,  but  by  a  generous 
friend,  who  built  well  upon  the  foundation  laid  down  by  Herschel,  adding 
to  the  use  of  finger  prints  by  comparison,  a  system  of  classification  by  which 
those  of  a  given  man  could  be  readily  found.  It  thus  happens  that  while 
the  name  of  Herschel  takes  its  proper  place  among  the  pioneers,  that  of 
Galton  is  remembered  by  a  grateful  posterity  as  the  founder  of  our  present 
system  of  Finger-Print  Identification.* 

Still,  aside  from  Faulds  and  Herschel  and  Galton,  there  were  other 
men  who,  at  about  the  same  time,  were  making  experiments  and  ob- 
servations on  the  subject,  and  one  at  least  put  the  matter  to  practical 
use.  Thus  Galton  mentions  two  Americans,  Mr.  Tabor,  "the  eminent 
photographer  of  San  Francisco,"  who  proposed  the  use  of  finger  prints 
for  the  registration  of  immigrant  Chinese,  and  Mr.  Gilbert  Thompson, 
the  geologist,  who,  while  in  charge  of  a  Government  survey  in  New  Mexico 
in  1882,  employed  this  method  to  prevent  the  forgery  of  orders  on  the 
camp  sutler. 

Aside  from  the  practical  use  of  finger  prints  for  identification,  several 
anthropologists  and  anatomists  have  used  various  methods  for  taking 
prints  of  palms,  soles,  and  fingers,  to  be  employed  as  records  of  the  con- 
ditions found  there.  Of  these  undoubtedly  the  first  was  the  German 
anthropologist  Hermann  Welcker,  of  the  University  of  Halle,  who,  in 
the  year  1856,  took  the  print  of  his  right  palm.  He  took  a. second  print 
of  the  same  in  1897,  and  published  them  both  the  ensuing  year.f  The 
first  print  was  taken  in  his  34th  year,  the  second  in  his  75th,  forty-one 
years  apart,  thus  spanning  a  greater  interval  than  any  in  the  possession  of 
Galton.  It  will  be  noticed  that,  as  Herschel's  first  finger  print  was  taken 
in  1858,  the  first  palm  print  of  Welcker  has  the  priority  of  two  years,  yet 
in  Welcker's  paper  of  1898  there  is  neither  in  word  nor  implication  the 

*Sir  William  James  Herschel  was  born  in  England  in  1833,  and  has  just  died  (Oct. 
23,  1917)  at  his  family  estate,  Lawn  Upton,  Littlemore,  Oxfordshire,  England.  Last 
year,  as  an  old  man  of  83,  he  published  an  interesting  little  book  of  some  40  pages,  with 
the  title  "The  Origin  of  Finger  Printing,"  in  which  he  reviews  his  early  work  in  India 
in  the  use  of  finger  prints  for  the  identification  of  natives.  In  this  he  publishes  the 
print  of  one  of  his  fingers  taken  in  1858,  at  the  age  of  25,  and  again  the  same  finger  at 
82,  fifty-seven  years  apart,  and  without  change  in  the  slightest  detail.  This  is  un- 
doubtedly the  longest  interval  thus  far  available  for  study,  surpassing  the  forty-one 
of  Welcker  by  sixteen  years. 

This  work  of  Herschel  was  unfortunately  not  available  at  the  time  this  chapter 
was  written,  yet  the  main  facts  are  presented  above.  The  book  is  recommended  to  the 
interested  reader,  and  furnishes  many  facts  of  historic  interest  in  connection  with  the 
early  development  of  the  system.  It  is  published  by  the  Oxford  University  Press, 
London. 

f    Published  in  Archiv  fur  Anthropologie,  Bd.  25,  1898,  pp.  29-32. 


342  Personal  Identification 


slightest  claim  to  this  honor,  simply  the  desire  to  assist  in  Galton's  claims 
to  the  unchangeableness  of  the  friction  ridges.  Thus  the  name  of  Hermann 
Welcker  must  be  added  to  those  who,  during  the  last  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  strove  to  exploit  the  friction-ridge  configuration  as  a 
method  of  personal  identification. 

Although  this  review  hopes  to  be  fairly  complete  concerning  the 
pioneers  among  the  white  race,  there  are  plentiful  suggestions  of  the  use 
of  finger  prints  among  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  reaching  back  to  an 
unknown  past.  One  must  here  distinguish  clearly  between  the  use  of 
the  ridge  markings,  as  seen  in  a  clear  print,  and  a  simple  blot  or  daub, 
used  either  by  an  illiterate  person,  as  we  use  the  cross,  or  for  some  super- 
stitious purpose,  where  the  actual  contact  of  the  person  signing  a  docu- 
ment is  thought  to  be  of  avail.*  There  is,  for  example,  an  old  Japanese 
divorce  law  of  China,  enacted  by  the  Emperor  Taiho  in  702  A.  D.,  where 
the  husband  was  required  to  sign  a  document  with  the  print  of  his  index 
finger;  but  there  is  absolutely  no  indication  that  this  was  other  than  a 
blot  conveyed  from  the  ink  (India  ink)  to  the  paper  by  his  forefinger. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  thumb  stamps,  and  nail  marks,  the  latter  of 
which  was  made  in  wax  or  clay  with  the  finger  nail,  and  could  have  shown 
nothing  of  a  finger  pattern.  It  is  still  possible  that  some  Chinese  or  Jap- 
anese antiquary  may  bring  to  light  some  definite  proof  of  the  ancient  use 
of  true  finger  patterns,  but  thus  far  no  such  practice  has  been  proven.f 

After  proving  the  individuality  and  the  permanance  of  finger  prints, 
Sir  Francis  Galton  took  the  next  great  step,  and  devised  a  method  of  de- 
scribing and  indexing  any  number  of  prints,  thus  rendering  possible  the 

*  In  Ploss-Bartel's  Das  Wcib,  Vol.  II,  p.  542,  there  occurs  the  following: 

Speaking  of  the  sale  of  wives  and  daughters  in  China,  permissible,  although  not 
considered  decent  or  respectable,  the  authors  say: 

"Der  Vertrag,  welcher  die  Bestimmung  des  Verkaufs  und  der  Verkaufssumme 
enthalt,  wird  dann  vom  Kaufer  und  dem  bisherigen  Ehemann  unterschrieben,  und  der 
letztere  beschmiert,  anstatt  das  Dokument  zu  siegeln,  die  Innenflache  seiner  rechten 
Hand  und  die  Sohle  seines  rechten  Fusses  mit  Tinte  und  driick  dieses  auf  den  Vertrag, 
womit  die  Uebergabe  erfolgt  ist." 

[Translated].  The  contract  which  contains  the  acknowledgment  of  the  sale  and 
the  sum  paid  is  then  signed  by  the  purchaser  and  the  former  husband,  and,  instead  of 
sealing  the  document,  the  latter  smears  with  ink  the  inner  surface  of  his  right  hand  and 
the  sole  of  his  right  foot,  and  presses  them  upon  the  contract,  whereby  the  transfer  is 
complete.  (H.  H.  W.) 

In  all  the  above  there  seems  to  be  no  thought  of  identifying  the  man  who  gives  his 
prints;  rather  it  seems  a  sort  of  superstition  —  sanctioning  the  sale  by  some  bodily  con- 
tact, like  shaking  hands  upon  a  sale.  If  identification  were  intended,  the  one  to  be 
printed  would  be  the  unlucky  woman,  who  is  thus  made  a  chattel  for  sale  and  exchange, 
like  a  slave. 

t  This  subject  has  received  a  brief  treatment  by  Minakata,  in  Nature,  1894,  pp.  77 
and  199,  and  1895,  p.  274. 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification 


343 


search  for  a  single  print,  or  set  of  prints,  in  a  large  collection,  and  by  this 
means  putting  the  system  upon  a  practical  basis  (1890-1891).  The  time 
was  now  ready  for  an  inquiry  by  the  British  Government  as  to  its  feasi- 
bility in  actual  practice,  and  on  Oct.  21,  1893,  a  committee  was  appointed 
for  this  purpose  by  the  Hon.  H.  H.  Asquith,  then  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Home  Office.  This  committee  consisted  of  the  following  :  Charles 
Edward  Troup  of  the  Home  Office,  Chairman;  Harry  Butler  Simpson  of 


FIGURE  144.     Sir   Francis   Gallon    (1822-1916).     (From 
Locy:   Biology  and  its  Makers,  with  the  author's  permission.) 

the  Home  Office,  Secretary;  Major  Arthur  Griffiths,  Inspector  of  Prisons; 
Melville  Leslie  McNaghten,  Chief  Constable  in  the  Metropolitan  Police 
Force.  (Of  these  Troup,  Griffiths,  and  McNaghten  constituted  the  com- 
mittee; Simpson  was  secretary.) 

The  committee  was  charged  "  to  inquire:  a,  into  the  method  of  register- 
ing and  identifying  habitual  criminals  now  in  use  in  England;  b,  into  the 
'  anthropometric '  system  of  classified  registration  and  identification  in 


344  Personal  Identification 


use  in  France  and  other  countries;  c,  into  the  suggested  system  of  identi- 
fication by  means  of  a  record  of  finger  marks:  to  report  to  me  whether 
the  anthropometric  system  or  the  finger-mark  system  can  with  advantage 
be  adopted  in  England  either  in  substitution  for,  or  to  supplement,  existing 
methods,  and  if  so,  what  arrangements  should  be  adopted  for  putting 
them  into  practice,  and  what  rules  should  be  made  under  Section  8  of 
the  Penal  Servitude  Act,  1891,  for  the  photographing  and  measuring  of 
prisoners." 

Thus  instructed,  the  committee  went  immediately  to  work,  and  their 
report  appeared  on  the  12th  of  February  following,  as  Blue  Book  C  7,263. 
The  parts  that  especially  interest  us  are  here  given,  taken  from  Galton's 
book,  "Finger  Print  Dire3tories,"  pp.  7—47,  where  the  report  is  given 
practically  in  full  and  includes  a  verbatim  report  of  the  interviews  between 
Mr.  Galton  and  the  committee. 

Concerning  Mr.  Galton's  system  and  the  impression  produced  by  it, 
the  report  states:  "A  visit  to  Mr.  Galton's  laboratory  is  indispensable  in 
order  to  appreciate  the  accuracy  and  clearness  with  which  the  finger 
prints  can  be  taken  and  the  real  simplicity  of  the  method.  We  have 
during  this  inquiry  paid  several  visits  to  Mr.  Galton's  laboratory;  he 
has  given  us  every  possible  assistance  in  discussing  the  details  of  the  method 
and  in  further  investigating  certain  points  which  seemed  to  us  to  require 
elucidation.  He  also  accompanied  us  with  his  assistant  to  Pentonville 
Prison,  and  superintended  the  taking  of  the  finger  prints  of  more  than  a 
hundred  prisoners." 

After  this  practical  experience  with  prints,  and  after  receiving  the 
explanation  of  the  system/from  the  inventor,  the  committee  states:  "It 
seems  impossible  to  insist  too  strongly  on  the  absolute  certainty  of  the 
criterion  of  identity  afforded  by  the  finger  prints.  Considered  merely  as  a 
test  of  identity  .  .  .>  their  use  becomes  at  once  extremely  simple, 
and  in  the  hands  of  an  expert  free  from  any  danger  of  error.  ...  If 
the  prints  of  three  fingers  only  of  every  criminal  prisoner  were  taken  before 
his  discharge,  and  kept  with  his  papers  in  the  prison,  it  would  be  impossible 
afterwards  wrongly  to  attribute  the  conviction  to  any  other  person.  .  .  . 
So  if  the  finger  prints  of  pensioners  were  taken  and  kept  with  their  papers, 
an  absolute  test  would  be  available  if  any  question  of  fraudulent  drawing 
of  the  pension  (e.  g.,  after  the  death  of  the  pensioner)  should  ever  arise." 

In  weighing  the  relative  value  for  practical  purposes  of  the  various 
systems  investigated,  three  principles  were  laid  down  by  the  committee: 

"l.  The  descriptions,  measurements,  or  marks,  which  are  the  basis 
of  the  system,  must  be  such  as  can  be  taken  readily  and  with  sufficient 
accuracy  by  prison  wardens  or  police  officers  of  ordinary  intelligence. 

"2.     The  classification  of  the  descriptions  must  be  such  that  on  the 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification  345 

arrest  of  an  old  offender  who  gives  a  false  name  his  record  may  be  found 
readily  and  with  certainty. 

"3.  When  the  case  has  been  found  among  the  classified  descrip- 
tions, it  is  desirable  that  convincing  evidence  of  identity  should  be 
afforded." 

Applying  these  rules  to  the  various  systems  investigated,  including 
ordinary  descriptive  methods,  the  Bertillon  system  of  measurements,  and 
the  new  finger-print  system  of  Galton,  the  committee  declared: 

"The  first  and  third  of  these  conditions  are  met  with  completely  by 
Mr.  Galton's  finger-print  method.  The  taking  of  finger  prints  is  an  easy 
mechanical  process  which  with  very  short  instruction  could  be  performed 
by  any  prison  warden.  While  in  M.  Bertillon's  system  a  margin  greater 
or  less  has  always  to  be  allowed  for  errors  on  the  part  of  the  operator,  no 
such  allowance  has  to  be  made  in  Mr.  Galton's.  Finger  prints  are  an 
absolute  impression  taken  directly  from  the  body  itself;  if  a  print  be  taken 
at  all  it  must  necessarily  be  correct.  .  .  .  The  committee  were  so  much 
impressed  by  the  excellence  of  Mr.  Galton's  system  in  completely  answering 
these  conditions  \i.  e.,  the  three  given  above]  that  they  would  have  been 
glad  if,  going  beyond  Mr.  Galton's  own  suggestion,  they  could  have  adopted 
his  system  as  the  sole  basis  of  identification." 

While  the  real  feeling  of  the  committee  was  expressed  by  the  above 
statement,  which  we  have  put  into  italics,  yet,  for  the  sake  of  the  general 
public,  they  recommended  the  retention  of  the  existing  methods,  to  which 
the  finger-print  system  should  be  supplementary  "at  least  for  a  long  time 
to  come,"  the  definite  proposition  being: 

"1.     To  photograph  them  as  at  present. 

"2.  To  take  the  five  measurements  required  for  purposes  of  classi- 
fication; viz.,  the  length  of  the  head,  the  width  of  the  head,  the  length  of 
the  left  middle  finger,  the  length  of  the  left  forearm,  the  length  of  the  left 
foot. 

"3.     To  take  the  finger  prints  by  Mr.  Galton's  method. 

"4.  A  description  should  also  be  taken  as  at  present,  but  somewhat 
briefer,  including  the  height  in  feet  and  inches,  colour  of  hair,  eye,  and 
complexion,  and  the  distinctive  marks." 

The  conservativeness  of  this  final  recommendation  is  explained  by 
the  remark:  "This  is  not  required  for  the  purpose  of  classification;  but 
it  is  necessary  (a)  in  case  the  arrest  of  the  criminal  should  be  required 
while  he  is  at  large,  and  his  description  has  to  be  published  for  this  pur- 
pose; (b)  in  case  his  identity  should  be  disputed,  when  the  distinctive 
marks  often  supply  the  evidence  which  can  most  easily  and  most  satis- 
factorily be  put  before  a  jury." 

The  committee  further  recommended  that  this  proposed  register  be 


346  Personal  Identification 


placed  at  Scotland  Yard  rather  than  in  the  Home  Office.  It  finally  ex- 
presses the  belief  that  it  will  take  some  years  to  fully  establish  the  Galton 
system,  "or  any  other  scientific  method  that  may  be  adopted,"  and  that 
the  full  results  may  not  be  expected  for  some  time;  it  is  hoped  also  that, 
after  the  establishment  of  the  finger-print  system  in  England,  it  "may 
speedily  be  extended  to  Scotland  and  to  Ireland." 

Thus  the  finger-print  system  became  officially  established  in  England, 
the  date  being  considered,  perhaps,  as  that  of  the  issuance  of  the  above 
report,  Feb.  12,  1894.  By  the  same  report  the  inventor  was  acknowledged 
as  Sir  Francis  Galton  of  London,  first  cousin  to  Charles  Darwin,  and 
at  the  time  of  the  interview  with  the  committee,  in  .his  seventy-second 
year.  Already  a  man  of  note  for  biological  research,  especially  in  the 
study  of  heredity,  he  crowned  the  labors  of  a  long  lifetime  by  this  great 
gift  to  all  humanity,  and  takes  his  place  among  the  roll  of  England's  great 
old  men,  as  a  worthy  member  of  that  company. 

To  carry  out  the  recommendation  of  the  committee,  who  recommended 
the  retention  of  the  Bertillon  system  as  the  principal  system,  and  to  in- 
troduce this  new  method  of  Galton's  as  subsidiary,  Mr.  Asquith  appointed 
Dr.  J.  G.  Garson  as  the  expert  to  organize  the  introduction  of  the  new 
system  in  its  subordinate  position.  Dr.  Garson's  full  title  in  this  new 
office  was  "Expert  Adviser  and  Instructor  on  Identification,"  and  he 
served  in  this  capacity  until  about  1901.* 

Dr.  Garson  had  studied  the  Bertillon  system  in  Paris,  with  the  in- 
ventor himself,  and  was  naturally  strongly  prejudiced  in  favor  of  it.  Work- 
ing with  the  finger-print  system  as  a  useful  adjunct  to  measurements,  he 
prepared  a  practical  method  of  applying  it,  and  presented  the  same  to 
the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  at  their  meeting 
at  Bradford,  in  1900.  This  method,  or  system  was,  to  use  his  own  words, 
"devised  to  be  worked  in  conjunction  with  classification  of  records  by 
measurement  of  the  head  and  limbs  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  search 
for  previous  records  of  criminals."  This  system  naturally  had  but  a 
short  life,  since  the  appointment  of  Sir  Edward  Richard  Henry  as  the 
Assistant  Commissioner  of  Police  at  New  Scotland  Yard  took  place  the 
following  year  (1901),  but  it  is  of  considerable  historical  interest  and  a 
short  descr  ption  of  it  in  this  place  would  not  be  amiss.  It  is  to  be  re- 

*  Garson  seems  always  favorable  to  the  finger-print  system,  but  was  very  naturally 
prejudiced  in  favor  of  the  measurement  system,  which  he  had  learned  directly  from  the 
inventor.  He  acknowledges  that  the  finger  prints  furnish  "a  test  which,  in  the  hands 
of  a  skilled  person,  would  be  unimpeachable,"  yet  finds  practical  difficulties  notwith- 
standing, as  he  says,  "the  labours  of  Mr.  Galton  and  Mr.  Henry,  and,  to  a  smaller  ex- 
tent, my  own  endeavours  in  that  direction."  To  him  these  difficulties  were  so  great 
"as  to  prevent  a  thoroughly  satisfactory  system,  workable  on  the  large  scale  we  re- 
quire in  criminal  work,  without  the  assistance  of  measurements,  from  ever  being  pos- 
sible." 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification  347 

'  membered  that,  as  a  subsidiary  system,  it  was  to  be  employed  merely  as 
a  convenient  means  of  separating  rather  small  groups,  and  would  not  be 
large  or  comprehensive  enough  to  be  used  as  the  only  classification  in 
large  collections. 

In  the  first  place,  Garson,  like  Galton  and  others,  recognized  four 
types  of  finger  pattern,  and  used  symbols  to  represent  them. 

An  arch,  thus    ....... 

A  loop  which  opens  on  the  left  / 

A  loop  opening  to  the  right  \ 

A  whorl  of  any  kind  .....  Q 

He  used  only  the  first  four  digits  of  the  right  hand  and  thus  the  "  loop 
which  opens  on  the  left"  means  a  radial  loop,  and  the  one  opening  to  the 
right  an  ulnar,  as  these  directions  refer  to  the  patterns  as  they  are  seen 
on  a  print  rather  than  on  the  hand. 

The  first  classification  is  that  of  the  right  thumb;  Class  A,  includes 
arches  and  all  kinds  of  loops,  and  Class  B  whorls  with  their  varieties. 
Each  of  these  two  classes  is  further  subdivided  into  four  smaller  groups 
by  the  pattern  on  the  index  finger,  here  using  all  four  types,  as  given  above. 
That  is,  Group  a  includes  arches  only,  Group  b  ulnar  loops,  Group  c  radial 
loops,  and  Group  d  whorls.  This  subdivision  into  four  of  each  of  the  two 
initial  classes  makes  in  all  eight  groups,  as  follows: 

A  a  B  a 

A  b  B  b 

Ac  Be 

Ad  B  d 

Of  these  eight  groups  A  c  and  B  d  alone  are  inconveniently  large, 
and  each  of  these  is  further  subdivided  in  its  own  way.  The  first,  A  c, 
is  divided  into  two  approximately  equal  groups  by  separating  those  cases 
in  which  all  four  of  the  fingers  used,  thumb,  index,  middle,  and  ring  fingers 
bear  ulnar  loops  from  those  in  which  other  patterns  occur.  B  d  is  sepa- 
rated on  quite  different  grounds,  namely,  by  the  pattern  on  the  middle 
finger,  whether  it  has  (1)  a  whorl,  or  (2)  any  of  the  other  three.  Cases 
including  lost  fingers  are  filed  with  B  a,  as  this  group  is  a  little  smaller 
than  the  rest. 

As  this  system  furnishes  five  A  groups  and  five  B  groups,  or  ten  in 
all,  it  can  be  used  to  divide  each  of  the  81  Bertillon  divisions  into  ten,  thus 
making  810  divisions;  or,  when  using  243  Bertillon  divisions,  the  full 
capacity  of  the  system,  the  divisions  will  be  increased  to  2,430. 

This  system,  based  on  practical  considerations,  and  devised  with 
special  regard  to  an  equality  of  the  divisions,  had  no  chance  of  surviving, 
for  such  was  the  march  of  events  that  the  complete  adequacy  of  the  finger- 


348 


Personal  Identification 


print  system  alone  became  so  quickly  established  that  no  one  cared  to 
adopt,  or  longer  to  use,  a  system  based  primarily  upon  bodily  measurements. 
In  1893,  the  year  in  which  Sir  H.  H.  Asquith  appointed  his  committee 
to  investigate  the  finger-print  system,  appeared  the  first  edition  of  the 
definite  work  of  Alphonse  Bertillon,  a  manual  of  the  system  of  identifica- 
tion by  bodily  measurements,  supplemented  by  careful  details  of  facial 
features  and  bodily  marks.  This  is  the  system  of  "  Bertillonage,"  as 


FIGURE  145.     Alphonse  Bertillon  (1853-1914).     From  an  early  photograph. 

the  French  term  it,  and  it  is  important  to  note,  in  order  to  correct  a  common 
error,  that  it  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  finger  prints  or  with  any  part 
of  the  friction  skin.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Bertillon  did  not  believe  in  the 
possibility  of  the  practical  use  of  finger  prints,  because  of  the  great  diffi- 
culty of  finding  a  means  of  classifying  a  large  collection  of  them.  In 
this  book  of  1893,  indeed,  he  says  expressly,  "Unfortunately  it  is  quite 
undeniable,  notwithstanding  the  indefatigable  researches  of  Mr.  Francis 
Galton  in  England,  that  these  designs  do  not  present  in  themselves  ele- 
ments of  variability  sufficiently  striking  to  serve  as  a  basis  in  a  collection 
of  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  cases." 

*  "  Malheureusement  il  est  tout  aussi  indeniable,  malgre  les  recherches  ingenieuses 
poursuivies  par  M.  Francis  Galton,  en  Angleterre,  que  ces  dessins  ne  presentent  pas 
par  eux-memes  des  elements  de  variabilite  assez  tranches  pour  servir  de  base  a  un  reper- 
toire de  plusieurs  centaines  de  mille  cas." 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification 


349 


Nothing  can  better  show  the  greatness  and  broadmindedness  of  Ber- 
tillon  than  the  fact  that  within  two  years  after  writing  the  above  he  had 
added  to  his  descriptive  cards  a  blank  for  finger  prints,  having  become 
convinced  of  the  efficacy  of  the  system.  Indeed  it  was  his  very  advocacy 
of  this  new  system,  the  invention  of  a  foreigner,  that  rendered  the  idea  cur- 
rent in  the  United  States  that  Bertillon  was  himself  the  inventor,  and  has 
made  the  present  explanation  necessary.  To  show  Bertillon's  early  and 


FIGURE    146       Alphonse    Bertillon    (1853-1914).      A 
late  photograph,  shortly  before  his  death. 

complete  adoption  of  the  Galton  system,  we  give  here  one  side  of  one  of  his 
own  descriptive  cards,  bearing  the  finger  prints  of  the  right  hand,  and  the 
date  of  August  27,  1895.  Upon  the  reverse  are  found  the  name  and  other 
particulars,  a  list  of  marks  and  scars,  and  the  finger  prints  of  the  left  hand. 
Aside  from  the  rapid  adoption  of  the  finger-print  system  for  practical 
purposes,  following  the  favorable  report  of  the  English  committee,  finger 
prints  began  to  appear  in  fiction,  and  in  1894,  with  his  accustomed  en- 
terprise, Mark  Twain  appeared  before  a  larger  public  with  his  "Pudclen- 


350 


Personal  Identification 


head  Wilson."  Had  this  genial  character  of  fiction  been  real,  he  would 
easily  have  been  the  inventor  of  the  system,  and  even  as  it  is,  there  are 
still  some  minds  in  whom  lurks  the  suspicion  that  in  some  way  Mark  Twain 
had  much  to  do  with  devising  the  "thumb  mark."  Still,  although  we 


FIGURE  147.  Signalement  card  from  the  prefecture  of  Police,  Paris,  bearing 
the  date  of  July  27,  1895,  and  showing  the  form  used  soon  after  the  adoption  of 
the  finger  prints.  Those  of  the  right  hand  are  seen  on  the  face,  the  prints  of  the 
left  hand  are  on  the  back,  in  a  reverse  position  to  thoss  of  the  right  hand. 

This  illustration  reduced  }/&. 

cannot  give  him  credit  for  this,  what  Mr.  Clemens  really  did  do  was  to 
spread  among  the  people  correct  ideas  concerning  the  new  system,  and 
thus  became  a  true  "prophet  to  the  Gentiles"  in  the  subject. 

While  Galton  invented  it,  Bertillon  promulgated  it,  and  Mark  Twain 
interested  the  public  in  its  possibilities,  the  finger-print  system  was  still 
rather  heavy  and  cumbersome,  and  needed  a  further  simplification,  a 
final  touch,  to  render  it  easily  applicable  to  police  headquarters  every- 
where. This  simplification  was  the  work  of  Sir  Edward  Richard  Henry,  who 


History  of  the  Subject  of  Identification  351 

gained  his  spurs  as  Assistant  Collector  of  Bengal,  colleague  and  successor  of 
Sir  William  Herschel.  In  1899  Henry  presented  his  simplified  system,  ela- 
borated in  India,  before  the  Dover  meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  and  in  1900  he  published  it  in  book  form,  the  first 
of  many  editions  and  a  standard  work  on  the  subject.*  (See  frontispiece.) 

Henry  was  called  to  London  in  1901,  as  assistant  commissioner  of 
police,  with  headquarters  at  New  Scotland  Yard,  where  he  is  at  the  pres- 
ent writing  the  acknowledged  head  of  the  system  of  finger  prints.  It  is 
with  great  pleasure  that  we  here  speak  of  the  many  ways  in  which  he  has 
assisted  us  in  the  preparation  of  this  book,  both  by  genuine  interest  and 
encouragement,  and  by  much  valuable  material  aid  in  furnishing  illustra- 
tive cases.  No  less  than  Herschel,  Galton  and  Bertillon,  to  whom  he  is  a 
worthy  successor,  he  is  a  thorough  scientific  investigator,  seeking  the  best 
and  most  complete  methods,  irrespective  of  the  source  from  which  it  comes. 
It  is  through  this  line  of  worthy  investigators,  to  whom  the  truth  is  far 
above  individual  interests,  that  this  great  gift  of  being  able  to  fix  an  in- 
dividual identification  without  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  has  been  transmitted 
to  humanity. 

As  a  definite  rival  to  the  British  school  of  dactyloscopy  may  be  cited 
the  labors  of  Juan  Vucetich  in  Argentina,  where  finger-print  identification 
has  progressed  further  than  ki  English-speaking  countries.  It  is  claimed 
that  Vucetich  had  printed  and  classified  the  finger  prints  of  many  criminals 
previous  to  September  1,  1891,  and  that  on  this  date  he  made  his  first 
finger-print  identification.  If  that  can  be  substantiated,  and  this  is 
practically  certain,  the  first  actual  use  of  finger  prints  in  identification 
should  be  credited  to  Vucetich,  who  thus  seems  to  have  made  the  first 
finger-print  identification  in  the  world  at  the  time  when  Galton  was  ready 
to  submit  to  an  investigation,  f 

*  A  review  of  the  presentation  at  Dover  is  found  in  Nature,  Vol.  61,  November  9, 
1900,  and  is  there  called  "the  chief  point  of  interest  on  the  first  day  of  the  meeting,  apart 
from  the  president's  address."  The  book  of  the  following  year  bore  the  title,  "Classi- 
fication and  Uses  of  Finger  Prints,"  the  same  as  in  the  later  editions. 

t  Vucetich,  Juan;  Conferenzia  sobre  el  sistema  dactyloscopiao,  dada  en  la  Biblio- 
theca  publica  de  la  Plata.  Publ.  at  La  Plata  in  1901. 

Vucetich,  Juan;    Dactyloscopia  comparada.     Publ.  at  La  Plata,  1904. 

The  perfection  in  the  use  of  the  finger-print  system  of  Vucetich  in  Argentina  was 
brought  out  by  an  article  in  the  Brooklyn  Eagle  for  January  28,  1917.  Every  able- 
bodied  man,  when  he  enters  for  the  military  service,  is  finger-printed  and  photographed 
by  the  Bertillon  method  (front  and  side).  These  data  are  pasted  into  a  little  book, 
which  is  kept  permanently  by  the  man  who  is  thus  described.  After  this  it  is  used, 
ind  its  use  is  required,  at  each  important  business  transaction,  including  the  obtain- 
ing of  a  marriage  license.  The  book  is  a  certificate  of  good  citizenship,  and  when  a  man 
commits  a  crime  his  book  is  taken  away  from  him.  Thus  the  main  use  of  finger-print 
identification  is  for  civil  purposes,  and  the  connection  with  criminal  prosecutions  is 
quite  secondary.  (G.  T.  M.) 


CHAPTER  XI 

PRESENT     USE     OF     FRICTION-RIDGE     IDENTIFICATION;       POSSIBILITIES     FOR 

THE   FUTURE 

"/  am  sanguine  that  the  careful  study  of  these  patterns  may  be  useful 
in  several  ways.  .  .  .  When  bloody  finger-marks,  or  impressions  on  clay, 
glass,  etc.,  exist,  they  may  lead  to  the  scientific  identification  of  criminals.  .  .  . 
Other  cases  might  occur  in  medico-legal  investigations,  as  when  the  hands 
only  of  some  mutilated  victim  were  found.  If  previously  known  they  would 
be  much  more  precise  in  value  than  the  standard  MOLE  of  the  penny  novelists. 
If  unknown  previously,  heredity  might  enable  an  expert  to  determine  the 
relative  with  considerable  probability  in  many  cases,  and  with  absolute  pre- 
cision in  some.  Such  a  case  as  that  of  the  Claimant  [Tichborne]  even  might 
not  be  beyond  the  range  of  this  principle.  There  might  be  a  recognized  Tich- 
borne type,  and  there  might  be  an  Orion  type,  to  one  or  other  of  which  experts 
might  relate  the  case." — Dr.  Henry  Faulds,  in  NATURE,  Vol.  XXII, 
p.  605,  October  28,  1880. 

IT  is  not  a  little  singular  that  the  one  who  was  the  first  in  modern  times 
to  suggest  in  print  the  use  of  finger  prints  for  identification  purposes, 
saw,  at  the  same  time,  a  wider  application  of  a  system  so  based  than 
did   his  contemporaries.     Yet,   as   shown   in   the  previous   chapter,   Dr. 
Faulds,  in  the  same  short  letter  in  which  he  suggested  the  use  of  finger 
prints  for  the  usual  form  of  identification,  mentioned  also,  in  addition 
to  certain  directions  of  thought  important  to  the  biologist  and  ethnologist, 
the  identification  of  severed  members,  and  the  tracing  of  relationship  by 
the  continuance,   through   heredity,   of  characteristic  configuration. 

While  in  the  suggestions  of  Faulds  there  are  some  that  seem  at  present 
to  be  rather  visionary,  there  are  others,  notably  the  identification  of  a 
criminal  by  accidental  finger  impressions  left  at  the  scene  of  the  crime, 
which  have  been  abundantly  verified.  By  the  introduction  of  the  entire 
palm  and  the  sole  into  the  system  the  identification  of  a  man,  not  only  by 
a  severed  member,  but  at  times  by  even  a  small  fragment  of  friction  skin, 
becomes  a  possibility  soon  to  be  realized.  Later  research  into  the  heredity 
of  the  finger  patterns  does  not  furnish  sufficiently  positive  results  to  promise 
much;  yet,  when  dealing  with  the  larger  and  more  striking  features  of  the 
palms  and  soles,  certain  heredity  characters  often  appear  with  marked 
distinctness,  and  may  be  of  use  in  furnishing  good  presumptive  evidence 
either  for  or  against  near  relationship. 

352 


Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification  353 

As  has  been  shown,  the  finger-print  system  was  first  officially  used  in 
India,  and  was  applied  to  the  identification  of  the  signers  of  various  sorts 
of  papers,  especially  deeds  and  pension  papers.  From  this  it  was  an  easy 
transition  to  the  identification  of  professional  criminals,  and  the  addition 
of  a  set  of  finger  prints  to  the  photograph  and  other  data  in  the  possession 
of  the  police.  It  was  seemingly  with  this  latter  use  in  mind  as  the  chief 
application  of  the  system  that  the  British  committee  of  October,  1893,  was 
appointed,  although,  both  in  the  appointment  and  in  the  official  report, 
identification  was  also  spoken  of  without  qualification. 

As  soon  as  the  system  was  incorporated,  however,  there  appeared  an 
unexpected  application,  namely,  that  of  tracing  the  agent  of  a  crime  by 
accidental  finger  marks  left  on  the  spot,  especially  those  to  be  found  on 
glass,  polished  furniture,  and  other  smooth  surfaces.  The  remarkable 
results  of  this  discovery,  resulting  in  the  conviction  of  the  criminal  in 
numberless  cases  where  otherwise  there  would  have  been  no  definite  clue, 
are  now  so  much  matters  of  common  knowledge  that  there  exists  a  popular 
error  to  the  effect  that  this  is  the  sole,  or  at  least  the  chief,  use  of  the  finger- 
print system,  while  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  originally  advocated  is 
more  or  less  forgotten.  Perhaps  the  most  flattering  tribute  to  this  form 
of  application  of  the  system  comes  from  the  criminals  themselves,  who 
have  now  taken  to  the  wearing  of  gloves  while  engaged  in  their  professional 
work. 

In  view  of  such  response  on  the  part  of  the  criminals  to  baffle  the 
finger-print  clue  left  by  accidental  impressions,  it  cannot  be  too  strongly 
emphasized  that  the  primary  purpose  of  the  system  is  to  identify  persons 
actually  under  scrutiny,  and  that  in  this  work  it  is  of  such  great  impor- 
tance that,  even  with  the  elimination  of  accidental  prints  altogether,  its 
usefulness  would  be  but  little  impaired.  Scotland  Yard,  during  the  first 
thirteen  years  in  which  the  finger-print  system  was  in  use,  had  made  some 
91,000  identifications,  without  a  single  error.  Some  of  these  are,  un- 
doubtedly, cases  of  identification  through  accidental  marks,  yet  the  vast 
majority  are  direct  identifications,  that  is,  of  men  actually  in  the  hands 
of  the  police,  who  deny  their  identity. 

Naturally  the  application  of  the  finger-print  system  to  the  identifica- 
tion of  criminals  at  first  rather  prejudiced  the  minds  of  the  public  to  its 
use  for  various  civil  purposes,  yet  it  has  gradually  made  its  way  in  other 
directions.  Certain  of  these  other  uses,  either  already  adopted  or  to  be 
contemplated  for  the  future,  are  here  considered. 

1.  Bank  Identification.  In  banks  there  are  several  ways  in  which 
a  definite  identification  is  necessary  or  advantageous,  such  as  the  identi- 
fication of  strangers  who  present  checks  for  payment,  and  other  clients; 
there  is  also  the  safeguarding  of  personal  checks  and  other  papers.  Several 
outfits  for  the  use  of  banks  have  already  been  devised,  based  of  course 


354 


Personal  Identification 


on  the  existing  system,  and  consisting  mainly  of  a  mahogany  box,  a  small 
piece  of  plate  glass,  and  other  appurtenances,  and  with  this  comes,  after 
the  payment  of  a  certain  sum  for  private  instruction,  the  explanation  of 
a  part  of  the  well-known  method  of  indexing,  as  given  here,  with  a  guar- 
antee of  secrecy  on  the  part  of  the  purchaser.  This  last,  in  view  of  the 
complete  publicity  of  the  whole  system  from  the  beginning,  seems  rather 
superfluous.  Naturally,  however,  all  these  systems  are  good,  since  they 
are  taken  directly  from,  the  approved  methods. 

It  is  to  this  source,  that  of  banks  and  their  needs,  that  we  are  indebted 
for  a  recent  advance  in  the  technique  of  taking  finger  prints,  a  technique 
which  will  rid  the  process  of  the  only  possible  disagreeable  feature,  that 


FIGURE  148.  Plain  impression 
of  the  right  index,  middle,  and  ring 
fingers,  as  used  by  banks  at  the 
present  time. 

of  the  use  of  printing  ink.  This  advance  comes  from  Mr.  Ray  E.  Bauder, 
cashier  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Taylorville,  111.,  and  consists  of  the 
use  of  a  card,  sensitized  chemically,  and  developed  and  fixed  much  after 
the  manner  of  a  photograph.  This  system  has  already  been  adopted  in 
nearly  all  the  larger  banks  in  Chicago,  and  is  employed  by  the  Chicago 
Police  Department.  Aside  from  the  usual  form  of  records,  Mr.  Bauder 
has  devised  two  other  applications.  One  of  these  is  an  identification 
card,  which  is  to  be  issued  only  through  a  bank  to  its  clients,  and  designed 
to  identify  him  while  traveling.  It  consists  of  a  small  card,  marked  with 
the  name  and  any  other  devices  of  the  bank,  and  bearing  the  signed  auto- 
graph and  the  usual  three  finger  prints  (right  index,  middle  and  ring),  of 
the  client.  The  other  device  or  form  of  application  is  for  bank  checks, 
to  prevent  either  forgery  or  any  attempt  to  raise  the  amount.  In  the 
one  case  the  imprint  of  the  three  fingers  is  placed  in  the  area  for  the  sig- 
nature, and  written  over  with  an  ink  that  bites  through  the  fiber  of  the 


Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification 


355 


paper;   in  the  other  the  print  of  the  thumb  alone  underlies  the  numerical 
expression  of  the  amount. 

Without  wishing  for  a  moment  to  belittle  the  conveniences  furnished 
by  the  various  firms  who  prepare  outfits  for  banks  and  other  places,  it 
should  be  noticed  that  the  finger-print  system,  as  employed  the  world 
over,  is  based  upon  natural  features,  and  has  been  elaborated  by  scientific 
men  who  have  carried  on  their  researches  for  the  love  of  knowledge  and 
have  given  their  results  to  the  world  without  restriction.  While  the 
various  improvements  in  outfit  and  method  may  fully  repay  the  small 


70-373 


FIGURE  149.     Check  signed  by  the  usual  three  fingers,  and  surcharged  with 
the  signature.     The  fingers  are  printed  by  the  Bauder  method. 

cost  of  installation,  nothing  more  is  really  necessary  for  an  effective  system 
than  a  piece  of  glass,  a  small  rubber  roller,  some  printing  ink  and  paper, 
and  a  slight  knowledge  of  the  system  in  general  use,  fully  explained  in 
any  one  of  a  considerable  number  of  available  books,  found  in  any  large 
library. 

The  need  of  such  a  system  for  the  identification  of  those  with  whom 
the  banks  have  to  deal  is  apparent  on  the  face  of  it,  and  especially  is  it 
valuable  in  case  of  the  small  depositors  in  savings  banks,  many  of  whom  are 
more  or  less  illiterate.  Add  to  this  the  considerable  proportion  of  foreign 
names,  which,  in  some  cases,  the  depositors  themselves  cannot  spell,  and 
the  chance  of  error  becomes  very  great,  relying  upon  the  customary  methods 


356  Personal  Identification 


alone.    A  rather  unusual  case,  involving  the  identity  of  a  depositor,  has 
recently  been  cleared  up  by  the  use  of  the  finger-print  record. 

A  certain  Mrs.  D.,  a  Polish  woman,  reported  at  the  police  station  of 
her  city  that  some  one  had  entered  her  tenement  that  morning  while  she 
was  away,  and  had  stolen  $40  in  cash  and  a  bank-book  containing  a  de- 
posit record  of  fc.120.  Her  husband  sent  to  the  bank  to  see  about  the 
deposit,  reported  to  his  wife  that  it  had  been  already  withdrawn.  The 
inspector,  suspecting  fraud,  took  the  husband's  finger  prints,  and  found 


70-373 


FIGURE  150.  Thumb  print  used  as  a  back- 
ground for  the  sum  for  which  a  check  is  drawn. 
This  will  prove  the  identity  of  the  writer  of  the 
check,  and  at  the  same  time  prevent  any  altera- 
tion in  the  figures.  Sample  of  the  Bauder  method. 

them  identical,  both  with  those  registered  at  the  bank  and  with  those  of 
the  man  who  had  presented  the  book  and  withdrawn  the  money.  The 
man  had  thus  withdrawn  his  own  money,  but  had  attempted  both  to  de- 
ceive his  wife  and  to  defraud  the  bank,  as  he  stoutly  denied  having  with- 
drawn the  sum,  and  demanded  that  he  be  given  the  amount  of  the  original 
deposit.  As  a  man  has,  naturally,  the  right  to  withdraw  his  own  money, 
the  case  was  dropped;  yet,  had  not  the  bank  previously  installed  the 
finger-print  system,  the  case  would  have  been  very  hard  to  settle. 

2.     Identification  of  Bodies,  when  records  have  been  previously  taken, 
and  are  available.    Naturally  any  system  based  upon  the  friction  skin 


Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification  357 

whether  it  be  finger  prints  or  the  larger  areas  of  the  palms  or  soles,  is 
entirely  independent  of  the  sentience  or  the  life  of  the  body  to  be  identified, 
and  thus  a  dead  body,  or  even  a  severed  hand  or  foot,  can  be  identified  if 
it  happens  to  have  belonged  to  a  man  whose  records  have  once  been  filed. 
Since,  in  addition  to  criminals,  the  United  States  now  keeps  the  finger- 
print records  of  its  enlisted  men,  the  number  of  men  thus  identifiable  is 
already  fairly  large,  and  is  constantly  increasing.  Should  it  happen,  then, 
that  a  body  is  that  of  either  a  recorded  criminal,  or  an  enlisted  soldier  or 
sailor,  its  positive  identification  is  simply  a  matter  of  looking  up  the  rec- 
ords. Some  time  ago  the  body  of  a  man  clothed  only  in  an  undershirt 
was  found  floating  in  the  Hudson  River  opposite  Fort  Lee.  It  was  badly 
swollen  and  difficult  or  impossible  to  identify  by  usual  means,  but  a  slight 
clue  was  afforded  by  the  make  of  the  undershirt,  which  was  like  those 
issued  by  the  United  States  Government  to  its  soldiers.  As  the  lines  of 
the  swollen  fingers  would  not  register  on  paper,  a  skilled  surgeon  and  an 
embalming  expert  took  the  body  in  hand,  extracted  the  water  from  the 
finger  ends,  and  substituted  a  hardening  fluid.  Prints  were  thus  easily 
taken,  and  sent  to  the  War  Department  at  Washington.  A  short  search 
resulted  in  finding  the  duplicates,  and  showed  the  victim  to  have  been  a 
corporal  from  Fort  Totten.  He  had  gone  off  on  leave  several  weeks  be- 
fore, with  two  months'  pay  in  his  pockets,  and  had  been  robbed  on  board 
some  steamer  and  thrown  overboard.  The  finger  prints  completely  es- 
tablished his  identity,  and  the  body  was  given  Christian  burial.  Else- 
where we  have  recorded  a  similar  identification  in  the  Navy  Department, 
and  the  reader  will  also  recall  the  unique  case  of  the  torn-off  little  finger 
left  on  a  gate  spike,  a  case  identified  by  Scotland  Yard.  All  of  these 
cases  treat  of  either  criminals  or  members  of  the  army,  where  their  finger 
prints  were  on  file  and  easily  available;  yet,  should  each  municipality 
keep  a  similar  record  of  each  of  its  citizens,  or,  still  better,  a  complete 
record,  including  palm  and  sole  prints,  all  would  be  capable  of  positive 
identification,  even  in  cases  of  the  gravest  accidents,  where  the  bodies  were 
badly  mutilated,  or  actually  dismembered.  Even  while  we  write  this, 
there  appears  in  the  daily  papers  an  account  of  a  mutilated  body  found  in 
a  river  flowing  near  one  of  our  largest  cities.  This  is  described  as  "the 
body  of  a  man,  evidently  wealthy  and  refined.  .  .  .  There  were  two 
gunshot  wounds  below  the  heart.  The  throat  had  been  cut,  the  nose 
smashed  with  a  heavy  instrument  and  the  face  criss-crossed  with  knife 
hackings.  The  whole  body  had  been  hacked  and  beaten,  and  finally  a 
clumsy  effort  had  been  made  to  embalm  it.  All  identifying  marks  on  the 
clothing  had  been  ripped  off."  If  this  city  possessed  a  long-established 
identification  bureau,  recording  all  of  its  inhabitants  at  school  age,  this 
body  could  be  at  once  identified,  had  he  been  an  inhabitant,  which  was 
likely.  If  he  had  been  a  stranger,  the  problem  would  be  confessedly 


358  Personal  Identification 


harder,  yet,  with  a  similar  system  covering  the  entire  country,  the  general 
publication  of  the  descriptive  formula  of  the  body,  including  the  finger 
prints,  palms,  and  soles,  would  bring  a  response  within  a  day  or  two.  The 
identification  would  be  absolute;  people  who  had  some  friend  missing 
would  be  spared  the  anxieties  of  baffled  hopes,  or  the  mental  and  physical 
strain  of  a  visit  to  the  morgue.  Even  at  the  present  time,  and  with  our 
present  equipment  for  identification,  if  this  body  should  happen  to  be  that 
of  a  professional  criminal  or  an  enlisted  soldier  or  sailor,  such  an  identi- 
fication could  be  made,  but  for  a  citizen  belonging  to  neither  of  these  classes 
there  is  no  provision. 

A  short  time  before  writing  this  it  was  being  reported  in  the  daily 
press  of  the  country  that  the  Mexican  bandit,  Pancho  Villa,  for  whose 
capture  the  government  sent  out  an  expeditionary  force,  had  died  of  his 
wounds,  and  that  his  body  was  likely  to  be  brought  to  the  United  States 
troops  for  the  sake  of  the  reward  for  the  man,  "dead  or  alive."  There 
was  much  discussion  as  to  whether  the  body,  wasted  by  suffering,  yet 
swollen  by  decomposition,  and  conveyed  by  rough  methods  over  rough 
country,  could  be  positively  identified,  and  yet  the  case  was  a  grave  one, 
and  the  issue  of  peace  or  war  between  two  countries  might  hang  upon 
the  decision.  Yet,  if  prints  of  the  bandit's  palms  and  soles  were  available, 
or  could  be  furnished  by  the  Mexican  Government,  and  placed  beyond 
suspicion,  this  critical  point  could  be  determined  in  a  few  moments. 

3.  Identification  in  Cases  of  Lost  Identity.  Most  of  the  hospitals 
in  the  larger  cities  are  well  acquainted  with  cases  of  this  sort.  An  in- 
dividual may  be  seen  in  the  street  "acting  queerly,"  or  found  unconscious, 
and  after  treatment  may  be  quite  unable  to  recall  name  or  place  of  resi- 
dence. Occasionally  this  condition  may  persist  for  years,  the  patient 
meanwhile  showing  no  symptom  of  derangement  save  that  of  a  more 
or  less  total  loss  of  memory.  These  cases  are,  fortunately,  rare,  yet  they 
do  occur,  and  offer  a  distinct  class  of  cases  that  could  be  much  alleviated 
by  the  establishment  of  the  identification  system  here  advocated.  As  in 
the  case  of  a  dead  body,  the  hands  would  be  sufficient  to  give  the  name  and 
address  of  such  a  patient,  and  his  friends  could  be  readily  notified. 
Such  cases  are  often  due  to  paralysis,  which  here  affects  the  mechanism 
for  speech  or  memory,  or  both;  in  other  cases  the  disturbance  is  less 
fundamental,  and  results  from  a  temporary  lack  of  function  due  to  the 
exhaustion  of  the  parts.  In  one  case  a  man  may  be  found  wandering 
about  the  street,  in  .great  mental  distress,  because  he  wishes  to  find  his 
home  but  has  forgotten  where  he  lives,  and  even  his  name;  in  another 
the  man  is  speechless,  and  can  tell  nothing.  In  1910  an  American  was 
found  wandering  along  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  in  London,  unable  to 
give  a  coherent  account  of  himself.  After  being  in  a  hospital  for  two  weeks 
he  uttered  the  name  "Drexel,"  which  appeared  to  be  a  clue.  The  news 


Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification  359 

of  this  case  came  to  the  attention  of  a  woman  in  Massachusetts,  whose 
son  had  disappeared  on  the  eve  of  his  wedding,  a  few  weeks  previous,  and 
who  recalled  that  at  the  time  he  had  talked  with  her  about  the  Drexel- 
Gould  wedding,  and  had  perhaps  remembered  the  connection.  She  im- 
mediately communicated  with  the  London  hospital,  and  recovered  her 
son,  who  gradually  came  to  the  full  recollection  of  his  past  estate. 

A  more  serious  case  was  that  of  the  famous  "J.  C.  R.,"  a  man  who 
in  1906  became  paralyzed,  while  sitting  in  his  chair  on  a  train,  en  route 
from  Minneapolis  to  Chicago.  He  was  taken  out  at  a  way  station  in 
Wisconsin,  and  eventually  settled  down  in  this  place,  being  perfectly  normal 
in  every  respect  save  that  he  could  recall  nothing  of  the  past,  not  even 
his  own  name.  He  was  referred  to  as  "J.  C.  R.,"  because  these  were  the 
initials  in  his  watch.  In  1914,  while  in  Chicago,  he  received  a  similar 
stroke,  and  was  taken  to  Rush  Medical  College,  where  he  was  identified 
by  his  mother,  who  had  last  heard  of  him  when  he  was  about  to  start 
home  from  Minneapolis  on  that  ill-fated  journey,  eight  years  before. 

In  both  this  class  of  cases,  and  in  the  identification  of  mutilated  bodies, 
there  is  great  need  of  a  positive  identification  as  soon  as  found,  both  for 
legal  purposes,  in  case  of  property,  and  to  relieve  the  suspense  of  the 
friends.  Where  the  man  is  alive,  but  the  identity  lost,  there  is  the  added 
claim  of  the  patient  himself  to  be  restored  to  his  family. 

4.  Identification  of  the  Babies  in  Maternity  Hospitals.  Here,  and 
perhaps  also,  although  to  a  lesser  extent,  in  creches  and  day  nurseries, 
there  is  need  of  some  means  of  absolute  identification,  by  which  the  differ- 
ent children  may  be  definitely  recorded  beyond  the  possibility  of  error. 
At  present  each  child  born  in  a  reputable  hospital  has  a  piece  of  tape, 
bearing  the  same  number  as  that  given  the  mother,  tied  to  the  wrist.  The 
identification  is  further  safeguarded,  as  a  rule,  by  the  attachment  to  the 
back  of  a  small  patch  of  surgeons'  plaster,  marked  in  the  same  way.  With 
even  these  precautions,  however,  there  is  still  a  possibility  of  confusion, 
especially  in  case  the  babies  are  bathed  or  fed  together,  or  otherwise  taken 
from  the  side  of  the  mother. 

With  the  introduction  and  spread  of  the  present  identification  system 
through  friction-skin  configuration,  some  application  of  it  in  such  hospi- 
tals is  to  be  expected,  and  we  are  pleased  to  record  here  that  pioneers  in 
this  field  have  already  appeared  in  at  least  two  places,  Chicago  and  New 
York.  In  the  former  city  the  idea  has  been  carried  out  by  the  Super- 
intendent ol  the  Chicago  Lying-in  Hospital,  Miss  Jennie  Christie,  assisted 
by  the  chief  nurse  of  the  birth  room,  Miss  Mabel  Cannon.  Seeing  the 
impracticality  of  obtaining  legible  prints  from  the  fingers  or  even  the 
palms,  Miss  Christie  uses  the  soles,  which  remain  fairly  flat  under  all  the 
muscular  action  of  the  infant,  and  cannot,  moreover,  be  covered  by  the 
toes,  as  the  palms  can  easily  be  by  the  fingers.  Thus  far,  however,  no 


360  Personal  Identification 


definite  attempt  has  been  made  to  classify  these  sole  prints,  as  it  is  suffi- 
cient, in  keeping  track  of  the  constantly  changing  infant  population,  to 
make  at  the  most  one  or  two  comparisons,  in  order  to  settle  any  doubt 
that  may  arise. 

In  New  York  much  interest  has  been  felt  in  this  problem  of  the  iden- 
tification of  infants  on  the  part  of  the  police  department.  Inspector 
Faurot,  when  interviewed  in  November,  1915,  gave  as  his  decided  opinion 
that  "  impressions  of  the  fingers  of  both  mother  and  child  should  be  made 
at  the  time  of  the  child's  birth.  .  .  .  It  is  only  one  feature  of  the 
finger-print  system,  but  it  is  an  important  one.  ...  It  will  insure 
that  the  mother,  between  the  time  of  her  confinement  and  the  time  when 
she  is  strong  enough  to  receive  the  child,  a  time  that  is  often  fraught  with 
grave  fears,  will  be  given  her  own  child.  No  one,  of  course,  knows  how 
often,  through  mistakes  and  carelessness,  the  mother  is  given  the  wrong 
child,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  such  mistakes  occur  only  too  often."  :  He 
then,  in  the  same  interview,  suggested  the  use  of  the  sole  in  the  identi- 
fication of  infants,  as  a  part  "which  bears  as  distinct  marks  of  identifica- 
tion as  the  fingers,"  and  then  outlined  the  possibility  of  establishing  a 
Bureau  for  Universal  Identification,  like  the  one  proposed  by  us  some 
years  ago.| 

At  the  same  time  with  the  experiments  of  Miss  Christie,  and  the 
suggestions  of  Inspector  Faurot,  Mr.  G.  Tyler  Mairs,  a  finger-print  ex- 
pert, was  also  experimenting  with  possible  records  which  could  be  taken 
from  babies.  He  was  led  by  his  experiences  to  reject  the  use  of  finger 
prints  altogether,  owing  to  mechanical  disadvantages,  and,  while  he  thought 
of  the  palms  as  possible,  to  advocate  the  soles  as  by  far  the  most  practica- 
ble, owing  to  their  relative  immobility,  and  the  lack  of  interference  with 
the  work  on  the  part  of  the  toes.  Thus,  on  October  30,  1915,  he  wrote 
the  authors  concerning  his  experiences :  "  It  is  practically  out  of  the  ques- 
tion to  get  a  good  full  set  of  baby's  finger  prints  because  of  the  incessant 
activity  of  the  subject.  This  applies  also  to  the  palms,  so  that  it  seems 
to  me  recourse  will  have  to  be  taken  to  the  sole  of  the  foot.  I  have  ex- 
perimented in  a  baby  clinic  on  the  fingers  and  palms,  but  did  not  try  the 
feet."  Again,  on  December  9  of  the  same  year,  he  writes:  "In  trying  to 
take  baby  finger  prints,  the  handicap  seems  to  be  a  mechanical  one,  be- 
cause of  the  great  activity  of  the  fingers,  and  their  very  small  size,  es- 
pecially the  little  finger.  Then  there  are  ten  operations,  instead  of  two, 
as  with  the  palms.  Unless  you  get  all  ten  full  enough  to  classify,  the  print 
is  a  failure  for  future  use." 

It  thus  seems  certain  that  for  the  identification  of  infants  the  sole, 
and  the  sole  alone,  may  be  practicable.  The  method  of  classifying  sole 

*  Boston  Post  November  26,  1915. 

t  Popular  Science  Monthly,  September,  1903. 


Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification  361 

prints,  as  given  in  Chapter  IV  of  this  Part,  may  be  of  value,  especially 
as  it  depends  upon  the  larger  and  more  obvious  features,  which  even  in 
the  case  of  such 'delicate  impressions  are  usually  clear  and  easily  made  out. 
In  our  experience  with  baby  prints,  as  in  all  cases  where  the  skin  is  soft 
and  the  ridges  fine  and  delicate,  the  best  prints  are  made  by  the  use  of 
a  minimum  amount  of  ink,  and  by  barely  touching  the  surface  of  the 
flesh  to  the  paper.  Such  prints  are  naturally  very  light  in  color,  but  the 
details  of  the  ridges  are  much  plainer. 

5.  Identification  of  Lost  Children.  This  topic  is  akin  to  the  last, 
and  refers  to  cases  where,  through  various  causes,  children  become  sep- 
arated from  their  natural  guardians.  This  frequently  happens  through 
fires  or  panics;  it  occurs  occasionally  through  the  child's  volition,  who 
runs  away  from  home;  in  rare  cases,  too,  outside  of  fiction,  a  child  does 
get  actually  kidnapped,  for  one  cause  or  another.  In  such  cases  the  return 
of  the  child  may  be  long  delayed,  even  until  the  child's  maturity,  thus 
giving  excellent  opportunity  to  adventurers  for  fraudulent  substitution 
or  impersonation.  It  is  thus  a  matter  of  as  much  moment  to  prove  that 
a  given  person  is  not  the  lost  child,  as  that  it  is;  and  there  are,  perhaps, 
more  opportunities  to  make  a  negative,  than  a  positive,  proof. 

Those  whose  memory  goes  back  to  the  famous  case  of  Charlie  Ross, 
remember  the  numerous  candidates,  some  put  forward  seriously,  and  some 
with  intent  to  deceive;  and  all  of  these  aspirants  had  to  be  looked  over 
and  personally  interviewed  by  the  unhappy  parents.  If,  now,  there  had 
been  a  previous  record  of  the  boy,  either  of  the  fingers,  .the  palms,  or  the 
soles,  taken  either  at  the  institution  where  he  was  born,  by  the  attendant 
physician  at  his  birth,  by  some  central  bureau  in  his  town  or  county,  or, 
finally,  by  his  parents  and  kept  among  the  family  papers,  all  this 
anxiety  and  annoyance  could  have  been  spared.  Without  fear  of  even 
an  attempted  impersonation,  the  prints  of  the  lost  boy  could  have  been 
spread  broadcast,  and  each  case,  wherever  reported,  could  have  been 
looked  up  by  the  local  authorities,  and  the  case  settled,  one  way  or  the 
other,  in  a  lew  minutes. 

This  case,  although,  largely  through  the  press,  it  acquired  a  nation- 
wide notoriety,  is  not  an  isolated  one,  and  there  is  perhaps  no  time  when 
there  is  not  at  least  one  missing  child  looked  for  by  the  police  of  the  coun- 
try. Thus,  in  the  papers  of  April  15,  1916,  we  read  that  a  boy  has  been 
seen  in  a  Gypsy  camp  near  Providence,  R.  I.,  and  that  it  is  suspected  that 

he  may  be  the  missing  J  -  -  G ,  who  disappeared  from  his  home  in 

—  about  six  months  ago.  Naturally  it  is  not  expected  that  finger 
prints  of  the  missing  boy  are  anywhere  available,  yet  if  the  family  had 
such  in  their  possession,  a  positive  identification  either  one  way  or  the 
other  could  be  made  of  this  boy  in  five  minutes,  without  the  co-operation 
of  any  of  the  relatives. 


362  Personal  Identification 

6.  For  Use  upon  Passports,  Travelers'  Cards,  Travelers'  Checks,  etc. 
In  September,  1915,  Mr.  Kunugi,  a  prominent  Japanese  merchant  ot 
Santa  Monica,  Cal.,  found  it  necessary  to  return  to  Japan,  and  remain 
there  six  months,  in  order  to  administer  the  estate  of  his  late  father,  in 
the  city  of  Kofu.  Wishing  to  return  to  the  United  States  when  these 
affairs  were  settled,  and  be  under  no  embarrassment  upon  returning,  he 
applied  to  the  police  of  Santa  Monica,  and  received  from  them  an  identi- 
fication card.  This  read  as  follows: 

Police  Headquarters,  Santa  Monica,  Cal.,  Sept.  23,  1915. 
"  To  whom  it  may  concern : 

"The  bearer  of  this  letter,  Mr.  Harry  Kunugi,  a  native  of  Japan, 
has  been  a  student  and  merchant  in  the  United  States  for  the  past  nine 
years.  He  bears  an  excellent  reputation  for  honesty  and  integrity,  and 
his  continued  success  and  worthy  ambitions  are  deserving  of  the  highest 
commendation. 

"Mr.  Kunugi  has  just  received  notice  from  his  native  city,  Kofu, 
Japan,  that  his  presence  there  is  necessary  in  order  to  administer  the 
estate  of  his  late  father.  He  expects  to  be  absent  about  six  months  and 
will  be  accompanied  by  his  two-year-old  daughter  Alice. 

"To  prevent  any  mistake  arising  in  regard  to  the  identity  of  Mr. 
Kunugi  or  his  daughter,  either  in  Japan  or  upon  returning  to  the  United 
States,  a  description,  together  with  photographs  and  finger  impressions 
of  both  appear  hereon. 

"E.  E.  RANDALL,  Chief  of  Police." 

This  is  probably  the  first  instance  of  the  use  of  such  an  identification 
card,  but,  with  a  duplicate  filed  at  the  Santa  Monica  office,  every  possi- 
bility of  faulty  identification  would  seem  to  be  removed.  The  instance 
illustrates  the  use  of  an  infant's  prints  as  well  as  that  of  an  adult;  Mr. 
Kunugi  would  be  able  to  match  the  impressions  on  the  card  with  his  own 
finger  bulbs  whenever  required;  and  the  only  possible  source  of  error,  the 
manufacture  by  the  bearer  himself  of  a  forged  card,  that  is,  a  card  not 
issued  by  the  police  headquarters,  could  be  checked  at  once  by  application 
to  said  office. 

Such  a  card,  issued  by  the  State  Department  at  Washington,  would 
form  a  passport  of  much  greater  value  than  any  of  our  present  forms, 
provided  only  some  method  could  be  devised  whereby  the  proof  would 
appear  that  the  prints  were  made  in  the  presence  of  the  proper  officials. 
This  could  be  effected  with  a  fair  amount  of  safety  from  forgery  by  sur- 
charging the  prints  with  the  official  signatures,  that  is,  by  first  taking  a 
print  covering  a  large  area,  either  by  the  use  of  the  full  set  of  finger  prints, 
or  by  that  of  an  entire  palm,  and  then  placing  the  necessary  signatures 


Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification  363 

directly  upon  the  printed  surface.  If  duplicate  prints  were  retained  by 
the  State  Department  fraud  would  become  impossible. 

By  the  similar  employment  of  a  single  print,  that  of  the  right  thumb, 
for  example,  surcharged  with  the  signature,  travelers'  checks  could  be 
issued  with  much  greater  safety. 

This  surcharging  of  a  print  by  a  signature  is  no  new  idea,  but  is  re- 
corded by  Galton  (1892,  p.  27)  as  having  been  employed  by  the  American 
geologist  Gilbert  Thompson,  while  on  a  government  survey  of  New  Mexico 
in  1882.  Here  the  matter  concerned  orders  on  the  camp  sutler,  made  out 
by  him,  which  would  allow  the  recipient  to  draw  on  the  supplies.  He 
placed  his  own  thumb  mark  on  each  order,  and  surcharged  it  with 
his  personal  signature.  The  case  is  thus  a  distinct  application  of  the 
system,  since  in  the  other  instances  here  treated  the  print  is  that  of  the 
holder  of  the  paper,  while  the  surcharging  signature  is  that  of  the  official 
granting  the  privilege. 

7.  Pensioners  and  other  Beneficiaries,  who  are  paid  at  definite  inter- 
vals.    Here  there  is  no  question  of  forgery,  since  the  finger  print  or  palm 
print  records  would  be  kept  at  the  office  of  the  agent  disbursing  the  funds, 
and  the  beneficiary  could  be  asked  to  prove  his  identity  by  signing  the 
receipt  with  his  thumb  or  other  finger.     This  was  the  earliest  use  of  finger 
prints  as  employed  in  India  by  Sir  William  Herschel,  and  has  been  in- 
dependently devised  elsewhere  for  this  and  similar  purposes. 

It  is  essentially  the  same  as  the  identification  of  depositors  in  banks, 
treated  above,  and  represents  the  same  method,  applied  to  a  different 
class  of  subjects. 

8.  Identification  of  Chinese  Coolies,  or  of  Undersirable  Immigrants, 
which  have  once  been  rejected.     These  classes  of  subjects  are  again  essen- 
tially similar  in  treatment  to  bank  depositors,  for  in  all  the  question  con- 
cerns the  recognition  of  persons  previously  recorded.     In  application  it  is 
thus  also  the  same  as  the  system  employed  for  the  recognition  of  old 
offenders  in  the  police  courts.     Because  of  this  last  association  there  has 
already  been  some  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  public,  yet  the  same  ob- 
jection might  be  urged  against  the  statements  concerning  the  color  of 
hair  and  eyes,  or  the  use  of  the  photograph,  employed  the  world  over  on 
passports,  commuters'  tickets,  and  the  like,  and  should  not  be  considered 
seriously.     At  this  writing  a  popular  agitation  has  been  worked  up  against 
the  New  York  police,  because  of  their  action  in  "finger-printing"  some 
boys  who  were  caught  playing  ball  in  the  street.     As  a  matter  of  fact, 
their  misdemeanor,  although  not  a  serious  one,  was  technically  sufficient 
to  get  the  boys  before  a  certain  magistrate,  and  the  taking  of  the  prints 
was  no  more  than  taking  their  names  and  addresses.     It  simply  served  to 
identify,  and  neither  has,  nor  in  itself  suggests,  anything  of  a  criminal 
nature. 


364  Personal  Identification 


Chinese  are  proverbially  difficult  of  identification  by  the  ordinary 
facial  recognition,  and  even  the  use  of  photographs  does  not  always  prove 
conclusive.  The  same  is  true  of  negroes,  and  of  all  peoples  of  a  race  un- 
like that  of  the  examiner,  where  the  racial  characters  stand  out  so 
sharply  as  to  obscure  the  finer  details  upon  which  recognition  largely 
depends. 

Undesirable  immigrants,  if  very  persistent,  are  liable  to  try  a  second 
time  to  enter  the  United  States,  relying  upon  non-recognition  and  the 
greater  leniency  of  a  new  set  of  officials,  but  if  all  rejected  cases  were 
recorded  by  fingers  or  palms,  and  the  formulae  for  these  were  recorded  at 
all  the  ports  of  entry,  the  fact  of  a  previous  arrival  would  be  definitely 
established. 

9.  Identification  in  the  Army  and  Navy.  The  present  use  of  finger 
prints  in  recording  all  enlisted  men  in  the  United  States  army  and  navy 
has  been  already  alluded  to  above,  in  the  case  of  a  mutilated  body.  Aside 
from  such  sporadic  instances  one  thinks  immediately  in  this  connection 
of  the  ravages  of  modern  warfare,  and  the  enormous  heaps  of  mutilated 
slain,  where  identity  is  considered  hopeless.  Even  as  long  ago  as  the 
Franco-German  war,  Bismarck  relates  seeing  a  long  row  of  carts,  coming 
from  the  front,  loaded  with  merely  the  trunks  of  dead  men,  without  either 
heads,  arms,  or  legs,  and  quite  unidentifiable.  Naturally  in  such  a  war 
as  the  present  one,  or  in  some  phases  of  the  one  just  mentioned,  any  search 
of  the  field,  or  any  long  examination  of  the  bodies  would  be  quite  impos- 
sible, but,  granting  the  opportunity,  which  does  sometimes  occur,  even 
in  the  case  cited  by  Bismarck,  certain  of  the  parts  missing  from  the  re- 
mains seen  by  him  might  be  found  on  the  field,  and  properly  identified. 
It  would  even  be  possible,  where  all  chance  of  studying  such  remains 
fails,  to  collect  from  bodies  a  given  finger,  perhaps  the  right  thumb,  and 
identify  these  far  in  the  rear,  where  the  opportunity  to  do  so  would  be 
given.  These  positively  identifiable  parts,  in  an  extremity,  could  be 
collected  into  vats  of  alcohol  or  formalin,  for  identification  at  some  later 
time,  even  after  the  close  of  the  war,  when  the  legal  importance  of  proving 
death  would,  in  the  case  of  some  individuals,  be  of  sufficient  importance 
to  far  more  than  repay  the  small  expenditure  for  this  work.* 

*  While  publishing  this  (July,  1917),  the  American  army  officials  are  working 
with  the  problem  of  the  identification  of  soldiers,  and  are  furnishing  the  men  with  iden- 
tification tags  of  "  Monel  metal,"  which  bears  the  imprint  of  the  right  index  finger, 
etched  into  the  metal  by  a  process  devised  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Taylor,  a  government  expert 
in  the  Bureau  of  Navigation.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  most  practical  method  in  case 
of  the  need  to  identify  an  entire  body,  but  if  a  record  were  made  complete,  and  included 
as  well  the  record  of  the  palms  and  the  soles,  an  identification  could  be  made  from  a 
detached  hand  or  foot.  In  this  connection  sole-print  records  would  be  of  especial  use, 
since  a  heavy  leather  shoe  would  often  afford  the  necessary  protection  to  a  foot  to  allow 
a  perfect  and  complete  identification. 


Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification  365 

Another  important  use  of  such  identification  in  the  army  and  navy 
comes  in  the  case  of  deserters,  who  attempt,  after  a  time,  to  re-enlist; 
technically  called  "repeaters."  Naturally,  \uth  the  chance  of  enlisting 
anywhere  in  the  country,  a  deserter  who  has  once  got  successfully  away 
has  every  chance  in  the  world  of  re-enlisting  somewhere  else.  With  any 
system  founded  upon  the  never-changing  friction  skin,  whether  fingers  or 
palms,  or  even  soles,  such  a  re-enlistment  could  be  absolutely  prevented, 
the  question  resting  merely  upon  the  amount  of  machinery  involved,  and 
the  question  of  expediency.  With  one  of  the  enormous  armies  of  the 
present  day,  numbering  one,  two,  or  even  four  million  men,  constantly 
changing,  the  machinery  for  such  a  perfect  identification  would  be  ex- 
tremely expensive,  both  in  time  and  money,  and  would  probably  never 
be  practical,  yet,  so  far  as  the  system  is  concerned,  it  could  be  done. 

For  this  use  in  recording  the  individuals  that  make  up  an  army,  it 
is  probable  that  the  palms  and  soles  would  be  of  more  practical  benefit 
than  finger  prints.  The  characters  dealt  with  are  large  enough  to  be  in- 
spected with  the  unaided  eye,  so  that  in  many  cases  a  single  glance  at  a 
hand  or  foot  would  show  non-correspondence,  and  thus  avoid  unneces- 
sary delay.  In  the  case  of  mutilated  bodies,  also,  hands  and  feet  would 
be  very  likely  to  be  available,  and,  if  the  records  were  indexed  for  each  of 
the  four  members,  a  single  hand  or  foot  could  be  at  once  traced. 

A  most  important  use  of  some  form  of  friction-skin  identification 
in  the  case  of  all  enlisted  men  is  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  pension  im- 
personators when  the  men  in  the  present  conflict  become  aged  veterans 
and  begin  to  die  off.  Pension  frauds  in  connection  with  the  Civil  War  are 
still  so  real  a  danger  as  to  bring  this  point  home  to  the  authorities,  and 
suggest  the  advisability  of  expending  a  small  sum  in  identification  now 
to  avoid  the  loss  of  much  larger  amounts  by  fraud  in  a  later  time. 

10.  To  prevent  Forgeries  of  Paintings  or  other  Works  of  Art.  As 
compared  with  the  larger  interests  here  treated,  this  application  is  a  very 
special  one,  and  would  have  a  restricted  application;  it  is,  however,  no 
less  important  in  the  eyes  of  a  connoisseur.  As  told  in  the  recent  press, 
"  the  idea  emanates  from  Prof.  Bordas,  to  whom  it  was  suggested  by  notic- 
ing that  in  a  landscape  by  Vollon  the  artist  had  accidentally  left  a  finger 
print  in  the  sky."  Each  artist  could  register  his  prints  with  the  appro- 
priate government  authority,  such  as  the  Minister  of  Fine  Arts  in  countries 
that  have  such  an  official,  and  surcharge  some  particularly  characteristic 
piece  of  brush  work,  unessential  to  the  painting,  with  a  finger  mark,  done 
when  the  paint  was  wet.  This  would  pretty  effectually  prevent  forgery. 

The  same  could  be  done  with  statuary  in  clay  or  terra  cotta,  and 
would  reproduce  fairly  well  in  a  bronze  cast. 

Conclusion.  Finally,  in  order  fully  to  employ  the  ample  means  fur- 
nished by  nature  for  individual  identification,  there  must  needs  be  es- 


366  Personal  Identification 


tablished  by  each  civilized  nation  a  National  Identification  Bureau,  which 
shall  see  to  it  that  every  individual  in  the  nation  be  printed,  and  that  the 
prints  be  kept  in  certain  central  stations,  and  there  recorded  and  classi- 
fied. A  move  in  this  direction  could  well  be  made  by  cities  and  large 
towns,  independently  of  one  another,  each  establishing  and  keeping  a 
Municipal  Bureau  of  its  own  until  such  a  time  as  the  country  is  ready  for 
some  form  of  co-operation,  or  organization.  Aside  from  cities  the  rural 
communities  could  be  controlled  from  the  county  seat. 

Children  could  be  printed  on  first  entering  school,  as  they  are  now 
vaccinated  in  many  communities,  the  ordeal  of  printing  being  far  less 
formidable,  and  without  the  after  effects.  Prints  taken  from  young 
children  are  especially  clear,  and  without  the  obscuring  wrinkles  of  later 
life;  and  an  intelligent  co-operation  may  be  usually  secured  from  children 
as  young  as  five  or  six  years,  or  even  earlier.  Incidentally  the  prints  are 
much  smaller  at  that  age,  and  easier  to  file,  while  there  is  no  impairment 
of  clearness. 

This  method  of  taking  universal  records,  and  thus  providing  for  the 
exigencies  of  life  in  the  direction  of  identification  under  all  circumstances, 
was  advocated  by  one  of  the  authors  as  early  as  1903,*  and  specifications 
were  made  at  some  length  as  to  the  size  of  room,  the  details  of  the  office 
furniture  required,  and  the  probable  amount  of  work  entailed  in  properly 
caring  for  the  prints  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  a  city  of  100,000.  It  was 
there  stated  (pp.  409-410):  "Prints  could  be  taken  in  each  township 
or  municipality,  and  filed  away  in  any  convenient  spot,  perhaps  the  court- 
house of  each  county  seat.  They  could  be  taken  in  connection  with  the 
school  registration,  either  when  first  entering,  or  better  yet  at  the  age  of 
twelve  to  fifteen." 

Among  the  uses  of  such  a  system,  when  once  established,  it  was  then 
suggested  that  "similar  records  could  be  taken  by  the  various  civil  and 
religious  institutions  in  which  the  identity  of  an  individual  is  apt  to  be 
called  in  question.  Banks  could  require  an  imprint  of  the  left  palm  upon 
the  inside  cover  of  bank-books;  business  men  could  issue  checks  with  a 
facsimile  engraving  of  the  palm  of  their  own  left  hand  covering  the  face; 
insurance  companies  could  keep  a  palm  and  sole  list  of  their  clients;  the 
Geary  law  would  be  rendered  a  certainty  if  the  certificate  issued  to  each 
Chinaman  bore,  besides  the  photograph,  a  single  palm  print,  and  churches 
could  file  away  palm  and  sole  prints  among  their  baptismal  records." 

We  can  close  this  book  in  no  better  way  than  by  placing  here  a  quota- 
tion from  Alphonse  Bertillon,  who,  while  establishing  his  system  of  identi- 
fication by  bodily  measurements,  clearly  saw,  perhaps  for  the  first  time 
in  the  world's  history,  the  need  of  Universal  Identification. 

*  Popular  Science  Monthly,  September,  1903,  pp.  385-410. 


Uses  of  Friction-Ridge  Identification  367 

"  To  fix  the  human  personality,  to  give  to  each  human  being  a  definite 
individuality,  durable,  unchangeable,  always  recognizable,  and  easily 
demonstrable;  such  seems  the  most  comprehensible  object  of  the  new 
method."  * 

*  ".  .  .  fixer  la  personnalite  humaine,  dormer  a  chaque  etre  humain  une  identite, 
une  individuality  certaine,  durable,  invariable,  toujours  reconnaissable  et  facilement 
demontrable,  tel  semble  1'objet  le  plus  large  de  la  methode  nouvelle."  Instruc.  signal. 
Introd.  p.  Ixxxiii. 


Personal  Identification 


APPENDIX 

OWING  to  the  kindness  of  the  publisher  the  authors  are  enabled  to  reproduce  here 
the  diagrams  of  a  pair  of  hands  which  deviate  from  the  usual  human  type  so  far 
as  to  closely  resemble  the  arrangement  found  in  the  large  man-like  apes,  especi- 
ally, the  chimpanzee.  These  are  in  the  authors'  experience  absolutely  unique,  being 
totally  unlike  any  in  a  collection  of  the  palm  prints  of  some  1100  individuals. 

In  the  left  hand  all  four  of  the  Main  Lines,  instead  of  crossing  the  palm  trans- 
versely, do  so  longitudinally,  and  terminate  together  at  the  wrist,  giving  the  otherwise 
unheard-of  formula,  1.1.1.1.  In  the  right  hand,  however,  a  delta  is  found  below  the 
ring  finger,  into  which  Line  C  runs,  so  that,  if  we  take  the  recurving  radiant  as  its  con- 
tinuation, we  get  for  Line  C  the  value  of  7,  which  makes  the  whole  formula  1.7.1.1; 
yet,  even  here,  if  we  take  the  lower  radiant  for  the  continuation  of  Line  C,  as  is  more 
natural,  the  line  runs  into  B  and  D,  and  ends  with  them  at  the  wrist,  as  in  the  other  hand. 

This  longitudinal  direction  of  the  friction  ridges  of  the  palm,  so  rare  in  the  human 
race,  is  the  rule  in  the  large  apes,  giving  such  formulae  as  3 . 3 .  2 . 1  (in  a  gorilla),  or  7 . 6 .  2 . 2 
(in  a  chimpanzee),  these  being  understood  to  be  the  formulae  for  individual  apes,  and 
not  for  all  of  the  species. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  part  of  this  entire  incident  is  that  in  every  other 
particular  the  young  woman  in  question  is  a  thoroughly  refined,  normal  American  white, 
a  graduate  of  Smith  College,  and  a  more  than  average  student.  Furthermore,  the 
hands  themselves  are  perfectly  normal  in  appearance;  they  are  delicate  and  graceful, 
with  nothing  about  them  to  suggest  the  possibility  of  a  peculiar  ridge  configuration. 
The  hands  of  both  parents  are  quite  usual,  with  the  formulae  11.7.7.4  and  11.9.7.5 
for  the  father,  and  11. 9. 7. 5  and  11.11.9.5  for  the  mother.  This  last  is  a  little 
unusual,  but  one  quite  to  be  expected  in  a  white  person. 


369 


INDEX 


Abbreviations  for  finger  patterns  .  .  189 

Accidental  impressions 260 

Accidentals 211 

Accidentals,  code  table  for 239 

Accomplishments,  identification  by  .  55 
Age,  determination  of,  from  bones  84,  90 

Anthropometry  59 

Arabian  Nights,  case  of  identification 

in 41 

Arithmetical  rule  to  determine 

Henry's  primary  classification  .  215 
Army  and  Navy,  identification  in  .  364 

Arch,  tented 197 

Arch,  type 188,  195,  197 

Arches,  code  table  for 239 

Axe-man  burglar 288,  289 

B 

Baby,  sole  prints  of 159 

Babies,  identification  of  ....  359,  360 
Bach,  J.  S.,  restoration  of  face  of  .  96-98 

Ball  area 164,  165 

Ball  pattern,  hallucal 161-170 

Ball  pattern,  inner  delta  of      ....    184 

Balthazard      322 

Bangor  Billy 313-316 

Bank  identification 353-356 

Bauder,  Ray  E 354 

Beauvais,  M 312 

Bertillon,  Alphonse 

345,  346,  348,  349,  351,  366 
his  manual  of  identification     45 
(foot  note)   60,  68 
his    method    of    describing 

scars 42-48 

measurements  in  the  U.  S.  65-67 

system,  criticism  of  ...    69-72 

system  of  measurements     60-65 

Boccacio,  case  of  identification  in  .    .      41 

Bones,  facts  obtained  from      .    .    .    81-92 

Boudet  and  Simonin 300-303 

Brain,  individual  character  of  ...  52 
Breton  caps  to  identify  villagers  .  .  25 

Brown,  George 271 

Bruises/>  blisters  .    297 


Cain,  mark  of 25 

Calcar  pattern 183 

Calculating  the  chance  of  error  .    .    .    321 
Care  in  developing  chance  impressions  262 

Carmon,  Miss  Mabel 359 

Carter,  Captain  Eugene  A 289 

Central  pocket 167,  169 


Central  pocket  loop 208 

Central     pocket    loops,     code    table 

for 240,  241 

Chance  of  error 312 

Chance  impressions 260 

how  developed  261,  267 
Chinese  coolies,  identification  of  .  .  366 
Chinese  use  of  palm  and  finger  prints  342 

Christie,  Miss  Jennie 359 

Cicatrix,  see  scar 

Claimants 18-20 

Classification  of  finger  prints  .    .   185,  213 
of  damaged  or   missing 

fingers       228 

Clemens,  Samuel 61,  350 

Cliff  dweller,  restoration  of  face  of  .  108 
Code  table  for  finger  prints  ....  234 
Code  tables,  for:  — 

accidentals      239 

age 248 

arches       239 

central  pocket  loops  .    .    .   240,  241 

ears      259 

eyes      249 

foot      252 

forearm 253 

finger  prints 234 

hair       250 

head,  breadth 251 

head,  length 251 

height,  total 254-257 

height,  body 258 

lateral  pocket  loops 242 

little  finger  length 257 

middle  finger  length      .    .    .    .251 

nose 250 

outstretched  arms 259 

radial  loops 243 

twin  loops 244 

ulnar  loops 245 

weight 248 

whorls,  elongated 247 

whorls,  typical 246 

Code  telegrams,  illustrated  ....  237 
Code,  to  indicate  the  position  of  a  scar  236 

Code,  working  of 235 

Color  of  hair,  eyes,  skin 67 

Colors,  standard,  for  eyes,  hair,  and 

skin      68-69 

Comparative      anatomy      of      ridge 

patterns .         .    119-124 

Comparison  of  chance  impressions  .  262 
Composite,  type  .  .  .  188,  195,  201,  208 
Congo  natives,  scarification  .  .  .  24,  25 
Coolies,  Chinese,  identification  of  .  .  363 


371 


372 


Personal  Identification 


C —  Continued  PAGE 

Core  of  a  pattern 126 

Cores  of  finger  patterns    .    .  193,  195,  196 

Counting  the  ridges,  whorls     ....   204 

loops  .    .    .    224,  225 

Crest,  in  hair      78 

Crispi,  Charles 286 


Dactyloscopy 185 

Damaged  fingers,  prints  how  classified  228 

Damery,  Lieut 234 

Darwin,  Charles 346 

Dauphin,  lost 20 

Delta   ..........   ^    ...  121 

Deltas,  compound 195 

of  finger  patterns 193 

Deptford  murders 274 

Development  of  latent  impressions   .  260 

Dirty  fingers  on  white  woodwork  .    .  281 

Disasters,  identification  following    .    .  18 

Dried  skin,  preservation  of      ....  79 


Eggeling,  study  of  faces   ...  98,  99,  100 

Elongated  whorls 206 

End,  a  ridge  detail 126 

Enlargement,  meaning  of 307 

Eleazar  Williams        20 

Epidermic  ridges,  see  friction  ridges 


Faulds,  Dr.  Henry    337-339,340,341,352 

Faurot,  Inspector      360 

Features  vs.  expression 27 

Femur,  neck-shaft  angle 89-90 

Filing  the  records      ....   219,  227,  230 

Fibular  pattern  of  sole 182 

Finger  patterns,  formula  for  separate 

patterns 190 

Finger  print,  or  prints:  — 

description    and    classification 

of 185,  213 

division  into  100  squares   .    .    .   326 
entire  finger  included     ....    187 

method  of  taking 191 

pattern  area 194 

record 192 

telegraph  code 234 

Fingers,  naming  of  the  joints    ....      42 

Fixing  chance  impressions 277 

Fork,  a  ridge  detail 126 

Form  of  chance  impressions     ....    191 
Form  of  separate  features    ....   67,  68 

Form  of  sweat  pores 298 

Formula  for  calculating  the  chance  of 

occurrence 319 

Formulae,  sole 175-182 

FraternAl  vs.  duplicate  twins  .    .      .33-35 
Frederick  II,  question  of  identity,    19,  20 

Frequency  of  sweat  pores 299 

Friction  ridges    .    .    26,  113,  114,  118,  134 


PAGE 

Friction  skin,  75-77,  113,  114,  118,  134,  293 
Friction  skin,  durability  of  .  75,  80,  81 
Friction  skin,  structure  of 296 


Gaboriau,  E.,  on  identification    ...      22 

Gait,  recognition  by      54 

Gallon,  Sir  Francis,  61,  74',  125,  132,  133, 
185-187,  340,  341,  342-346,  348,  351 

Gallon  details 125,  128 

Geary  law 366 

Garson,  J.  G 346-347 

Geneva  agreement;    1912 59 

Gloves,  wearing  of 309 

H 

Habits,  recognition  by 54 

Haida  Indians,  tattooing  among  .  .  23 
Hair  arrangement  on  body,  73,  76,  77,  78 
Handwriting,  identification  by  ...  57 

Haskell,  Capt.  Herman  A 290 

Henry,  Sir  E.  R.  .  .  .  188,  233,  266,  346 
Henry  system  of  classification  .  .  .  213 
Herschel,  Sir  Wm. 

132,  339,  340,  341,  351,  363 

Hill,  Roscoe  C.  .    . 234,  289 

Hindus,  prints  studied  by  Gallon,  132,  133 

His,  Wilhelm      .    .    .    .  _ 96,  97 

Hypothenar  pad  of  walking  mammals  119 
Hypothenar  pallern 136,  153 

I 

Idenlificalion  card  used  by  Ihe  authors  231 

Idenlificalion  by  sweal  pores    ....    298 

of  bodies,  cases    .    .  357,  358 

tags      18 

Illustralion  by  lellers  in  cups   .    .    .    .319 
"         of  a  code  telegram  ....    237 
Impossibility  of  finding  two  identical 

finger-prints 312 

Incipient  ridges 130 

Index  cards 232 

Indian  picture  of  palm 332-333 

Ink  used  in  making  prints   .    .    .    114-116 

Inside  whorl 203-206 

Instances  of  faulty  recognition 

28,  29,  38,  39,  40 

Interdigital  pads  of  walking  mammals  119 
Island,  a  ridge  detail  .  .  .118,  125,  126 


Jaw,  angle  of 88,  89 

Jennings  case 284-286 

Jones,  John  Paul,  identification  of.    .      81 
Judicial  proof  by  chance  impressions     260 

K 

Key  to  Henry's  32  x  32  cabinet    .  214,  215 


Lane,  George 272 

Lanterns,  projecting 308 


Index 


373 


L  —  Continued  PAGE 

La  Rosa  case      109-110 

Latent  impressions 260 

Lateral  pocket  loop 209 

"       loops,  code  table  for  242 

"         "       on  sole       .   167,  169 

Letters  in  cups,  illustration  of     ...   319 

Locard,  M.  Edmond,   185,  260,  264,  265, 

292,  298,  309,  310,  311 

Loop,  central  pocket 208 

invaded 201 

lateral  pocket 209 

radial 189,  195 

type 188,  195,  197 

ulnar       189 

Lost  children      361 

Lost  identity      358 

Lower  deltas  of  sole       161,  178 

Luetgert  case 73 

Lyons,  France 260 

M 

Magnification,  explanation  of      ...   307 

Main  lines,  A,  B,  C,  D 137ff 

Main  line  formulae 141-149 

"      arrangement  of,  149-151 

Main  lines  of  sole      162 

Main  line  system,  key  chart  ....  140 
Main  line  system,  palms  .  .  .  137-151 
Malpighi,  Marcello  ....  292, 333-335 

Mairs,  G.  Tyler 266,  360 

Manouvrier,  table  of  stature  ....  91 
Mark  Twain,  see  Clemens,  Samuel 

Mayor  case 281 

Mayor,  the  assassin 281-283 

Meeting  whorl 203-206,  292 

Method  of  search 229 

Micron 298 

Minutiae,  see  Gallon  details 

Missing  fingers,  how  classified     .    .    .    228 

Missing  fingers,  to  find  records  of  .    .    220 

Mitchell,  burglar 273 

Moles,  method  of  describing  .  .  .  42-48 
Mummies  . 80-81 


N 

Naevus,  see  mole 

National  Identification  Bureau  .  .  .  366 
Navy  and  Army,  identification  in  .  364 
Navy,  U.  S.,  identification  in  .  .  75-76 

Negro  formula 146 

New  England  Indians,    face  restora- 
tion      101-106 

Number  of  sweat  pores 299 

O 

Occurrence  of  the  patterns 212 

Odyssey,  case  of  identification  in    .    .      41 

Oloriz,  Senor 233 

Osborn,  Albert  S 56,  262,  323 

Outside  whorl         203,  206 


Pacini,  his  restoration  of  the  face  of 

La  Rosa  109-110 

Pads  of  walking  mammals 119 

Paintings,  forgeries  of 365 

Palms  and  soles 74-77 

Palmar  patterns 153 

Palm  prints,  interpretation  of  .  157,  158 
Papillary  ridges,  see  friction  ridges 

Parting,  in  hair 78 

Passports,  finger  prints  on 362 

Pattern  area  of  a  finger  print  .  .  .  194 
Pattern  formula  for  palms  .  .  .  154-156 

Patterns       126,  134,  151-156 

Pensioners,  identification  of     ....    363 

Permanence  of  a  pattern 130 

Perkin,  Warbeck 20 

Personal  peculiarities 52,  53 

Phalange 186 

Phalangette 186 

Phalangine      186 

Phalanx,  phalange,  plural  of  ....  185 
Photographing  chance  impressions 

262,  263,  268 
Plain  impressions,  how  made    ....    191 

Plantar  areas      164 

Plantar  patterns       162,  163,  171,  172-176 

Plantar  patterns,  formula; 175 

Poe,  Edgar  Allen 312 

Police  practice,  Lyons,  France    .    .    .    260 

Poroscopy 292 

Position  of  sweat  pores 298 

Powder  to  develop  chance  impressions  261 

Preparing  the  glass  plate 192 

Pretenders 19,  20,  21 

Primary  classification,    E.    R.    Henry 

215-216 
Primary  classification  modified  by  the 

authors    216-218 

Primary  classification,  palms  .  .  136-151 
Principles  involved  in  making  prints 

of  friction  ridges 293-295 

Principles  of  identification  by  chance 

impressions 264 

Prints,  how  to  make  them  .  .  .  114-117 
Prints  of  the  feet,  how  made  .  .  .  .116 
Prints  of  the  palm,  how  made  .  .  .  115 

Projecting  lanterns 308 

Proof  from  chance  impressions  .  .  .  260 
Proof  of  innocence  by  finger  prints  .  291 

Pudd'nhead   Wilson 61,350 

Purkinje,  J.  E.  .    .    .    .    .    .    187,330,337 

Purkinje,  classification  of  finger-prints  337 


Race  to  which  a  given  skeleton  belongs     92 

Radial  loop 197,  198 

Radial  loops,  code  table  for     ....    243 

Radial  patterns      l-r>3 

Radius 189 

Ratio,  of  4  to  1 

Recognition  by  voice 28,  53 

Recognition  vs.  identification      .    .    40,  57 


374 


Personal  Indeniification 


R  —  Continued  PAGE 

Record  cards,  description  of  ....  230 
Record  cards  used  by  the  author  .  .  231 
Restoration  of  face  on  skull,  table  .  102 
Restoration  of  face  on  skull,  technic 

101-109 
Reversing  the  colors  of  a  finger-print 

photograph         305,  306 

Rhomboid,  in  hair 78 

Ridge  counting,  average 199 

Ridge  counting,  subdividing  by      .    .    226 

Ridge  counting,  loops 224,  225 

Ridge  counting,  whorls 204 

Ridge  patterns  on  pads 121 

Ridge  rudiments 130 

Ridge  tracing,  illustration  of  ....  206 
Ridge  tracing,  incomplete  whorls  .  .  204 

Ridge  tracing,  whorls 203 

Roget,  Marie  .  .  312,  317,  318,  320,  321 
Roller  used  in  making  prints  .  .  114,  115 

Rose-bowl  burglar 287,  288 

Rosewood  jewelry  box,  Lyons,  France    300 


Sacrum 83,84 

Scar,  how  indicated  by  code  ....  236 
Scarification,  for  identification  .  .  24,  25 
Scars,  etc.,  methods  of  describing  .  42-48 

Scheffer  oase 279 

Scotland  Yard  ....  266-268,  353,  357 
Scull,  Deputy  G.  H.,  account  of  the 

La  Rosa  case 109,  110 

Searching  the  records,  method  of  .  .  229 
Secondary  classification,  finger  prints  220 
Secondary  classification,  palms 

136,  151-157 
Sex,  determination  of,  from  bones     82-84 

Seymour,  Lee 262,  322 

Shakespeare,  cases  of  identification  in  41 
Sight  recognition,  passim,  Part  I, 

Chapter  II 

Simpson,  William 271,272 

Size  of  sweat  pares 298 

Smith,  Frederick 272 

Sole  formulae,  occurrence  of  ....  181 
Sole  formulae  of  100  women  .  .  179,  180 
Sole  prints,  special  uses  of  ...  159,  160 
Stammering,  recognition  by  ....  55 
Stature,  ascertained  from  bones  .  90-92 
Stereopticon,  use  in  projecting  prints  117 

Stratton  brothers 274 

Structure  of  friction  skin 29ft 

Stuttering,  recognition  by 55 

Subdividing,  various  methods         221-226 

Sub-pubic  angle 83,  84 

Surcharging  a  tattoo  mark    ....   45,51 

Sweat  pores 118,297 

"       "       size 298 

position 298 


Tattooing 48-51,23 

Tattooing  among  civilized  peoples  .   49—51 
Tattooing  among  Haida  Indians      .    .  •  23 

Taylor,  J.  H 364 

Teeth,  use  in  identification     74,  87,  92-95 

Telegraph  code 234 

Tented  arch 197 

Thenar  pad  of  walking  mammals  .    .    119 

Thenar  pattern      136,  153 

Thompson,  Gilbert 363 

Tichborne  Claimant      19 

Tracing  of  the  ridges,  illustration  of      206 

'    incomplete  whorls     204 

whorls      ....    203 

Transitional  patterns 199,  232 

Tread  area  of  sole 160 

Triplets 35,  36 

Triradius 121 

Twins 33-35 

Twin-loop 209 

Twin-loop,  code  table  for 244 

Twin-loop,  on  sole 167,  168 

Types  of  patterns,     ....  187,  188,  197 


U 


189 


Ulna     .    , 

Ulnar  loops 

189,  194,  197,  198,  313,  428,  329 

Ulnar  loops,  code  table  for 245 

Ulnar  pattern 153 

Universal  identification 366 

Use  of  chance  impressions  in  detecting 

the  author  of  a  crime 260 

Use  of  sweat  pores  in  identification       292 


Voice,  recognition  by 28,  53,  55 

Vucetich,  J 351 

W 

Ward,  Henry  W 276 

Wearing  gloves  by  burglars     ....   309 

Webster-Parkman  case 73,  93 

Wrelcker,  Hermann 341,  342 

West  negroes,  the  two 30-32 

Wheeldon,  J.  H.     . 269-271 

Whorl,  incomplete,  ridges,  how  traced  204 

in  hair      78 

inside 203-206 

meeting 188,  203-206 

outside 203-206 

spiral 195 

types    ....    188,  195,  201,  203 
Whorls,  code  table  for  elongated      .    .   247 
code  table  for  typical ....    246 

elongated 206 

Wratten  &  Wainwright  plates     .    .    .    276 


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